Brand New Day, Brand New World
by Primus1243
Summary: Leon finally grabbed the latest version of the release of a pokemon game. This time allowing VR. And he's going to rightfully enjoy the Sinnoh region with all that comes with it. Though, he then learns that the game allows more than the game or anime ever did. Letting him exploit it. Human x Human, Human x Pokemon
1. Chapter 1: Scanner Room

"Awesome," a man says entering his home with a box under his arm with the title 'Pokemon Chronicle Collection'. "About time to put all the pokemon game remakes into one set," he says going over to his computer and opening it up and installs one of the disks he picked at random. "Also, so cool it comes with a VR function and is more like an RPG," he says as he waits for it to finish installing and noticed he put in the Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum game. "I hope this doesn't end up like No Man's Sky and not have the stuff promised in it," he says before seeing it will take a while gets up and goes for an ice cold drink. After he returned in an hour from doing a few things around the house, he noticed the game was fully installed and sat down to play it. "Alright, let's start," he says activating his VR headset and starting the game.

The next thing he knew, he was floating in blue space with computer code everywhere before a pokemon themed window with the words 'Welcome to Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, VR remastered'. "Alright. Start a new game," he says and the window dissolved into code. 'Welcome to the world of Pokemon.' the intro began. "Skipping," he says before the words 'Input your name' appeared. "Leon," the man says typing it in and that disappears before two default models appear. 'Are you a boy or a girl?' the pop up ask.

"Hum…what playthrough should I do?" he asks himself thinking before selecting the boy. "I will go full roleplaying this time. Next, I will just basically mess around," he says before the female model disappears, allowing him to customize his male avatar. Ending on giving him short auburn hair and green eyes. Much to his dissatisfaction though he couldn't change the clothing, but he figured he would probably be able to buy clothes at a store like in X and Y later pokemon games. "Alright finished," he says and the avatar disappears and he is surrounded by code before he looked exactly like the avatar he finished with.

'Would you like to enable the chance to encounter all pokemon or would you like for it to remain classic for this playthrough?' a pop up asks. "Huh? There is a question. Do I want the chance to get pokemon from all the regions that came afterward, even if it is a small chance or do I want the classic?" he asks himself before laughing. "Duh. Of course, I would. Makes things more fun and random," he says before noticing his voice had changed to sounding a lot younger. "Huh? Well, that is a feature they didn't mention," he says while selecting yes. 'Note: This setting may result in inconsistencies.'

'Would you prefer to play classic where the game is more like the original game with the characters and plotlines or anime where the anime-exclusive locations, events, and characters will be in the game?' the next popup asks. "…really? You even have to ask?" the guy asks immediately selecting anime. "Though if it was black and white, I may not have been so quick to choose that," the man mutters to himself when he sees the next option. 'Would you like a quick make random background or choose your character's background?' "Background…that is interesting…ok. For the sake or RPing and curiosity's sake, I will choose my character's background," he says after a bit.

'Your character was born and raised where? A. Forest, B. A city, C. Mountains, D. Desert, E. Drylands, F. Savannah, G. an island, or H. Coastline?' the pop up asks. "Ok, didn't expect so many options…eeny, meeny, meeny, you," he says picking Coastline at random. 'What were the surrounding areas like?' the pop up asks showing all the options again, but greying out the coastline and island. "Uh…let's go with forest. Plenty of pokemon in there," he says selecting it before seeing the perk 'Born on a coastline' appear on his character sheet.

'Which of the following pokemon did you take care of in kindergarten? A. a Weedle, B. a Caterpie, C. a Shellos, D. a Krabby, E. a Wooper, or F. a Rattata?' the next question read. "Hum…interesting. I am guessing this is heavily influenced by where my avatar grew up…let's go with the odd one out. It will probably help me, in the beginning, being a normal type, but offer no advantages in mid to late game," he says selecting Rattata and the perk kindergarten pokemon normal type appeared on his character sheet.

'When you were young, you had an encounter with the following pokemon that was rare in the area. And you developed a fondness for it or fear of its type.' "Oh, giving either a fear or love of. Nice one…what do we have?" He asks looking down the options. "Ok, that is…I am so tempted…oh crap, I can't resist," he says smiling as he shakes his head, selecting Lucario then selected fondness and gained the 'Fighting type fondness' perk on his character sheet.

'And finally, where did you go during your childhood upbringing? A. Help out at the local pokemon lab, B. work at the pokemon center, C. work on a family ranch, D. work at a pokemon daycare center, or E. work at the local gym?' the last pop up asks. "Ok. One of these probably gives me a big bonus or access to a skill," he says thinking hard about it before finally deciding on pokemon center and getting the perk 'basic medical knowledge'. 'What timeline should the anime be in the playthrough?' the pop up now reads before listing off the seasons. "Huh…you know if it wants me to be with Ash and his group then…yeah. I would like the chance," he says before selecting the timeline where Ash was starting in the Sinnoh region.

'Do you want to finalize all this character?' the pop up asks. "Confirm. Let's play," the man says smiling.

'Final option, Enable Realism mode?' the text says. "Realism…oh like realism mode in left for dead series? Sure I will. Will make things interesting," he says before clicking yes.

'You are Leon. A new trainer starting out who just finished the pokemon prep school. You grew up on a coastline town surrounded by forests. Your rise to becoming a trainer, started back in kindergarten when you were chosen to take care of the class's Rattata. As you grew up, your interest in pokemon grew as you helped your parents who worked in the pokemon center as medical staff with nurse joy and chansey. Your path was cemented on this course when one day while playing in the woods, you encountered a lucario battling an ursaring. As you watched, you started developing a greater and greater fondness for fighting-type pokemon and learning how they battled and convinced your parents to enroll you into the pokemon prep school in preparation to go on a pokemon journey of your own.'

He feels himself lifted up as bright circles start to travel up and down his form as he sees himself turning into code and taken apart. The man smiles as he hears something calling out the whole process. "Scanning," he hears as the circle run over him. "Transfer," he hears and sees some of his coding body parts start to disappear. "Virtualization," he hears and then a bright light engulfs his vision.


	2. Chapter 2: Everyone Does That Start

The next thing the man knew, he was on a bus that stopped in Sandgem Town. Getting off, he looked around taking everything in. Even for his VR set, this was pretty good and it seemed completely real. As he moved around and explored a bit he discovered a postcard, a map to the professor's lab, and pictures of the three starter Pokémon of the region. Excitedly, he followed the map and started towards the lab where he was greeted by the staff and was shown inside to the professor before being shown all the starters: turtwig, chimchar, and piplup.

"Hmm…who to choose?" Leon asks himself as looks between all of them as they all give off actions of saying 'pick me'. 'This is so lifelike. They all are giving off their own actions without repeats.' Leon thinks before smiling and picks up chimchar for some reason, feeling influenced by something.

"Oh, so you go with chimchar? Very well. Here are some pokeballs and our pokedex. Take care of her," Professor Rowan says.

"Thanks. Now let's see," Leon says using the pokedex on chimchar and starts to scan the pokemon. 'Okay. That's how.' Leon hums as it finishes scanning and he became surprised. "You're a…girl?" he asks, knowing the starters would be male most of the time.

"Chim," she says smiling.

"In that case, I will call you Amber," Leon says petting her.

"Chim," Amber purrs smiling as she nuzzles his hand.

"Shall we go?" Leon asks heading out with everything after thanking the professor.

"Chim!" Amber cheers as she raises a hand.

"So you only know scratch and leer, huh? We can work with that," Leon says walking around as Amber moved out of his hands and climbs on him.

"Chim?" Amber asks looking down at the pokedex in his hands.

"Yeah. That is you," Leon says showing Amber the picture.

"Chim," Amber says smiling as she leans closer and takes the pokedex and looks it over.

"Now, which one do you want?" Leon asks showing her the six pokeballs.

Amber taps her chin to his amusement before she dives and touches a ball and picks it up for him.

"Alright, this will be yours. Go and rest for now, ok?" he asks before enlarging it by pushing the center and taps it to her.

"Char," Amber cheers as she is turned into red energy and gets sucked into the pokeball and it shrinks for him.

"Now how do I secure these?" he asks before trying to figure it out before he continued on walking before trying something with no one around. "Alright. Let's take a break," Leon says before trying to pause the game and bring up the menu but nothing happened.

"What the…?" Leon asks confused as he tries to keep bringing up the menu through various motions. "Come on you stupid thing. Work damn you…emergency shutdown," he then says but nothing happened, making him start to panic. But for some reason, the panic faded just as it came.

'Is this a glitch?' Leon thinks before stopping and an excited feeling rose to the surface incredibly fast as he had spotted a wild pokemon.

"Meep," a mareep calls out as it chews on some grass before picking up its head and seeing the human.

Leon wordlessly gets his pokedex and scans the pokemon. "Mareep, the Wool Pokémon. Mareep stores static electricity in their wooly coat. They avoid battle and have mild dispositions."

"Mild dispositions? That's something you don't hear every day," Leon says shrugging as he looks back to the mareep as it seems to get the idea that he wants to battle it. "Alright then. Amber, let's go," Leon says tossing her pokeball and out comes Amber, looking a bit confused that she was let out so early.

"Chim?" Amber asks looking at him.

"Amber, I want you to battle that mareep over there after I do something," Leon says walking past Amber to it and looks at it in the eye.

The mareep blinks confused at the human walking up to it and try to figure it out before seeing him open his arms to it. The mareep sweat drops almost amused as this isn't the first some first time trainers wanted a hug from the fluffy coat.

"Well…?" Leon asks still holding open his arms to it.

The mareep stares at the human and leans over to see Amber doing the same thing behind him before shrugging and snuggling up to the human, wanting to feel the pets on its coat.

"Wow. It is fluffy," Leon says happily before he hears static popping. "Eh?" he asks looking to see mareep shocking it's fluffy coat and sweat drops. "Oh dear."

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Amber watches confused still as her trainer was shocked and the mareep snickers as it jumps out of his arms and saunters off proudly.

"Amber…attack," Leon manages to get out as he sparked a bit on the ground.

Amber walks up to him before patting his head smiling. "Chim," she says before turning serious and turns to mareep as it seems to have gotten the message that it is time for battling.

"Scratch…it…up," Leon says.

"Chim," Amber acknowledges and runs at the mareep before trying to scratch at it and makes it quickly move back as a few lands on its head before it charges forward with a tackle attack.

Leon tries to get up as Amber flies back near him. "Come on Amber. Up and at em…ow," Leon groans as shocks kept running over his body.

"This…is a little sad," a female voice says as Amber got back up and charged.

"What?" Leon groans as he picks up his head looks to see a red-headed girl that looks familiar to him.

"Let me guess. You are new at this, huh?" she asks bending down to him.

"Kinda…" Leon huffs as he still tries to stand. 'Wait…this hurts?' Leon thinks alarmed.

"You get zapped by the wild pokemon I'm guessing," she observes.

"Yeah…I hugged it," Leon groans as he tries to stand.

"You hugged it," she says nearly laughing.

"It looked so fluffy," Leon tries to defend.

"Ok…so how are you doing?" she asks watching the battle as Amber tried her best to fight the mareep.

"New to this," Leon says trying to wipe down the static.

"Alright, here is a tip, try to give your pokemon a little more direction," she says.

"I'm trying to think of a plan…um…what's your name?" Leon asks frowning.

"Zoey. So what can your pokemon do?" Zoey asks, trying to be helpful by making him think.

"Scratch and leer," Leon says getting up and shaking himself.

"And how can you use them?" she asks probing while thinking. 'Did he just get his first pokemon?'

"Just using scratch. Should take it down soon," Leon says looking to how the battle is going.

Zoey facepalms and shakes her head hearing that. "Wouldn't it be better to weaken its defenses first?"

Leon blinks and looks up as Amber is knocked back by another tackle. "Amber, leer!"

Amber, hearing that, soon started doing that. It's eyes turning red as it did, creating a red outline on Mareep as it did.

'So it is somewhat useful,' Leon thinks as he sees mareep looking a bit fearful before Amber attacked again, it's scratching seemed more effective now.

"You know, this may be the right time to throw a pokeball," Zoey advises.

Leon blinks and fumbles around with his pokeballs before he expands it and aims and throws. Zoey snarks as the pokeball went flying into the forest and miss mareep by a long mile. "I can do this," Leon says annoyed as he gets another.

'This is funnier than I thought it would be,' Zoey thinks continuing to watch.

Leon reels back his arm and throws. This time Amber laughs as the pokeball misses again.

"Ok, here," Zoey says smiling before showing him how to throw them as she takes his own pokeballs and throws one and catches mareep. "That's how it's done," Zoey says, not seeing his face looking a little dejected as Amber gathers up the two pokeballs that missed badly.

"Thanks…I guess," Leon says as Zoey caught on which way his mood went.

"Oh…don't worry. This one is still your catch," Zoey says trying to smile as she holds the pokeball out to him.

Leon takes the pokeball as Amber returns with both pokeballs. "So just started today I am guessing," Zoey inquires.

"I don't think I need to answer that one," Leon says.

"No. No, you don't," Zoey says giving him the pokeball as Amber holds the thrown ones to him and he takes them.

"Not the best first attempt," Leon mumbles to himself as he picks Amber up.

"Chim," Amber says patting his arm comfortingly.

"I can tell just by looking at you. You need help. Big time," Zoey says sweatdropping.

"Don't I know it," Leon says sighing.

"What do you think glameow?" Zoey asks looking at her pokemon.

"Meow," Glameow purrs as she licks her paws.

"You think so too?" Zoey asks.

Glameow nods as she raises an eyebrow at him.

"Hey. How about you come with me so I can teach you a few things?" Zoey offers.

"Really? After all that?" Leon asks a bit nervous and embarrassed now.

"I would feel bad leaving you here on your own. You might try hugging another mareep if you can find one," Zoey jokes.

"They do have fluffy coats," Leon says thinking about it.

"So what do you say?" Zoey repeats.

"Um…sure. Thanks for the help," Leon says a bit embarrassed.

"Come on now," Zoey says motioning him along as Leon was racking his brain.

'Zoey…where have I seen you before?' Leon thinks as Amber smiles and pulls on his leg to follow.

"So…what are you from?" Zoey asks as they kept walking.

"Oh, I am…from the east coastline," Leon says after a pause as the info flooded into his mind.

"Oh. So how is it there? You surf at least?" Zoey asks smiling.

"Yes," Leon answers before Amber's stomach growls at them.

"Were you able to stock up on food at least?" Zoey asks smiling as she digs into her backpack.

Leon says nothing as he blushes. Before getting into his bag and starts checking, hoping for something.

Amber climbs onto his head and shakes her head at Zoey.

"Here," Leon says offering Amber a fruit from the backpack.

Amber gives a sly smirk to Zoey as she takes it and chews it up.

* * *

"So what do you aim to be?" Zoey asks as they sit around a fire.

"Oh…uh…I don't know, I have decided between trainer or coordinator," Leon says before something clicked. 'Zoey…coordinator…Dawn's strongest rival from the anime!? Whoa. Talk about chances,' Leon thinks remembering who she was.

"Well, maybe you can try the first gym and contest and then you can decide," Zoey offers.

"Well…that doesn't sound like a bad idea, but…I don't think it would go well as you saw with puffball here," Leon says looking to the mareep laying on the ground.

Zoey giggles. "You shouldn't feel so bad. Most trainers sometimes make the same mistake."

"Well, at least we will have something soft to sleep against," Leon says.

"As long as you have a rubber blanket," Zoey adds.

"Oh, don't worry. Mareep has learned his lesson, haven't you?" Leon asks.

Mareep smirks and sparks his coat as Zoey giggles.

"You want to go back into the pokeball?" Leon asks frowning.

Mareep snickers as he ends the sparking.

"You caught a troublemaker," Zoey says smirking.

"Yeah…got that," Leon says frowning.

"So anything you want to talk about or ask?" Zoey asks.

Leon sighs. "Well…I do wonder if I can go home right now."

"It's still there," Zoey says trying to encourage.

"…yeah…" Leon mutters as he curls up his legs and lays his head on his knees.

"Hey, come on. Look on the bright side. You are here on a pokemon journey," Zoey says.

"Yeah. That is a plus," Leon says scratching Amber behind the ears and she leans her head more to let him scratch more.

"Best get some sleep. Tomorrow, I will start teaching you how to train your pokemon," Zoey informs.

"That would be nice," Leon says laying his head down on mareep's coat and tries to get comfortable. "And no thunder wave," Leon adds pointing at mareep's face.

Mareep sticks his tongue out and lays his head down to sleep.

* * *

The next day, Zoey went to work teaching Leon many different things about being a trainer, mostly around battling and how to throw a pokeball correctly until lunch when they started heading out again.

"And that how some of those attacks works," Zoey says pointing to a list of moves Amber can try to learn on her pokedex.

"So what do you think Amber?" Leon asks as they walked with Zoey.

Amber smiles as she gives a few air punches.

"Now let's try another pokemon battle," Zoey says as Glameow was let out of her pokeball.

Amber grins and jumps up. "Chim!" she yells getting ready.

"Glameow, let's teach them," Zoey says before her pokemon started to attack.

"Amber, move out of the way and use leer," Leon orders.

Amber called out before jumping into the tree and using it, making Glameow gain a red outlining.

Leon smiles as that move worked before thinking of whether it can be stacked. "Leer again," he calls out to test it.

'What is he up to?' Zoey thinks watching as the outline becomes more intense.

"And again," Leon says as Amber jumps away from a shadow claw that destroyed the branch she was sitting on. "Now scratch," Leon calls, making Amber jump at Glameow and hits her with obviously more force than Zoey was expecting.

"Glam!" Glameow yells out as she was knocked before getting up growling at Amber.

'Uh oh. That didn't do as much damage as I had hoped,' Leon thinks before Zoey called out, "Ok. That's enough Glameow."

"Glam," Glameow acknowledges as Amber calms down and walks back to Leon.

"Now that was using your head," Zoey says smiling at the progress that was made.

Leon smiles. "Thanks. Figures it had to do something."

"Now you just need to work more with fluff ball over THERE!" Zoey cries out when she sees mareep going through her bag.

"Mareep! Out of the bag! Now!" Leon scolds.

"Ma," mareep says, moving its head around with the bag on it, obviously stuck or being held onto by his teeth.

"Ugh…Amber…help him," Leon says dejectedly as he facepalmed.

"Chim," Amber says jumping off to go help.

"Yeah…this happens," Zoey says trying to smile for him.

"To you or in general?" Leon asks.

"Both," Zoey says hanging her head.

Leon, seeing this, pats her shoulder.

Zoey sighs and walks towards the panicked pokemon. "Come on. Better help him."

"Fluffball, hold still," Leon says grabbing him by the wool as Zoey removed her backpack.

Zoey blinks as she pulls her backpack off. "Fluffball?"

"I call him that whenever I want him to listen to me. It's not his name. I am still thinking on that," Leon explains.

"Better work on it though," Zoey says seeing the smirking mareep.

"You use thunder wave, I will put you back in the ball," Leon informs letting go.

"Meep," mareep says grinning.

"Alright. Back to the lessons," Zoey says.

"Which part?" Leon asks watching mareep carefully.

"You do know some basic food gathering skills, right?" Zoey asks.

"Uh…" Leon drones out.

"Ok, there is my answer," Zoey says trying to smile as she sweatdropped.

"Sorry…still new at all of this," Leon says shrugging.


	3. Chapter 3: Girl Talk

After nearly a week later, the two finally make it to Jubilife City where the first contest was being held.

"Finally," Zoey says looking over the city in the distance.

"Did we make it in time?" Leon asks.

"Oh yeah…but you better run because you need to register with the center for your contest part and then register for the contest itself," Zoey says grinning as she looks at the time. "You have ten minutes."

"I won't be able to find it in that time so I will cheer you on and register for the next one?" Leon offers.

Zoey smiles. "Sure. I can even help you get the starting registry for both trainers and contest players afterward."

"Thanks," Leon says as he follows her as they looked for the contest hall. Upon reaching it, Zoey registered and walked off after saying, "I'm going to the changing room."

"Changing room?" Leon asks himself as Amber smirks at him. "Why for a contest? It's to show off the pokemon…isn't it?"

"All of Sinnoh dresses up for their contests," Zoey informs smirking.

"Well that's new," Leon mutters. "I'll cheer for you," he says going for the stands.

'Think…if Zoey is here, then does that mean…anime rules?' Leon thinks as he waited with Amber in his lap.

Amber looks up at him confused as he looks around. "Chim?"

"We are waiting on Zoey," Leon says petting her head.

Amber sighs along with him as they waited for a bit and Amber started to get bored before climbing his head and resting there. Then it started up with all the coordinators starting to perform with their pokemon one by one. Then Zoey performed and memories started to come back to Leon when he watched the anime as Ash and Dawn performed.

'No way. It's almost like I'm seeing the anime again…but…when did Zoey come in? After the first contest or second?' Leon asks himself as he couldn't take his eyes off her show.

"Chim?" Amber asks looking down.

"Glad I decided to wait, don't you?" Leon asks, completely sure he would have been destroyed in the first round watching this.

Amber smiles as she relaxes on his head. "Chim," she says as they return their attention back to Zoey.

"Now let's see if you can take the entire contest Zoey," Leon asks as they watch and wait for the results and, to his expectations of his memory, Leon saw Zoey, Dawn, and Ash get to the second round.

"So they are here," Leon says to himself as he tries to look around for Brock at least as he got up to go wait outside the locker room to see Zoey. When she did emerge, she seemed in a bad mood. "Ah…Zoey?" Leon asks.

"What?" Zoey asks almost bitterly.

"You ok?" Leon asks before remembering she was upset with Ash in this contest for being told he was also challenging the league.

"Not really. Stupid kid doesn't know what he is doing," Zoey mutters at the end.

'Oh, right. Ash stayed ten the whole time…that is the stupidest crap ever,' Leon thinks looking to the side. "So uh…want to talk or get something during the…you look good." Leon says taking a good look at her white outfit.

Zoey at least smiles at that. "Thanks for that."

"Speaking of which…how did you afford it?" Leon asks.

"You're kidding, right? You have to know about that," Zoey says sweatdropping.

"Know what?" Leon asks.

Zoey facepalmed again. "I may have to send you back to kindergarten or were you never informed…oh, wait. You came from one of those pokemon prep schools, didn't you?" Zoey asks.

"How did you know?" Leon asks.

"By your lack of practical knowledge," Zoey informs.

"They teach that in other schools?" Leon asks confused.

"No, no, they don't," Zoey says before informing him of his account and the money they annually get and the pay grades.

"What?! Where is that?" Leon asks looking through his pokedex.

"Your trainer ID. You should have gotten it with your first pokemon," Zoey says.

"Uh…" Leon mumbles as he looks through the menus and finds his ID. "I have…five thousand."

"Basically fifty bucks then. They show change as well. It's a glitch that has never been addressed," Zoey informs trying to preempt him before he gets overexcited.

"Oh…so how can I raise it?" Leon asks hopefully.

"Through a variety of ways. Your pokedex logs all the pokemon you captured. Increasing that will raise your pay grade. Winning official contests and tournaments is another, also winning badges," Zoey says listing off the ways as the food arrived and they and the three pokemon started eating.

'And here I thought Brock took care of the money that Ash got from his mom. Who knew?' Leon thinks to himself.

"This is why so many want to be trainers. It also keeps many in shape that can be called to service in case another war breaks out like with Kanto," Zoey says.

'Ah. So it is like the Olympics. Showing off how much better they are than the rest and to keep up military power,' Leon thinks as Zoey pets mareep's coat.

"You were right, you know?" Zoey says as mareep likes the attention.

"A fluffy pillow?" Leon asks eating his burger, not wanting to think where the meat came from.

Zoey nods as mareep doesn't spark for her and Leon glares at him as if he betrayed him.

"So…uh…what do you like to spend your money on?" Leon says trying to ignore mareep to not give him the satisfaction.

Zoey hums. "Mostly traveling supplies and room and board at the hotels around the cities and towns."

"And I am afraid to ask, but how much do you have right now?" Leon asks.

"Right now, I have saved up a bit over five thousand," Zoey informs smirking as mareep sticks his tongue out at Leon.

Leon rolls his eyes a bit before sighing. "And your income?"

"I think around five to eight hundred a week," Zoey says.

"Geez. And I'm only fifty," Leon mutters. "Can the income carry over to another league?"

"I think so, but I believe different regions have a different value with money," Zoey says.

"Oh…so not the same as much," Leon says thinking about how it seems so similar to his world.

"Yeah, so what do you think of the contest so far?" Zoey asks.

"I am glad I decided to wait till later," Leon says bluntly.

Zoey chuckles. "How about I take you to a gym and show you how that goes? Maybe then you can decide on what you want to focus on."

"I mean we would have been destroyed. Especially Fluffball," Leon adds.

Mareep pouts up like a puffball at that as he seems to frown at him.

"Yeah. Maybe entering is a little too soon for you and your pokemon. After all, contests are harder than battles," Zoey says.

"Considering that we have only won one battle," Leon points out.

"And that was against this one," Zoey says patting the mareep.

Leon looks to the mareep as he eats away. "Yeah."

"And even that…was a bit sad," Zoey admits.

"Please…don't remind me," Leon says almost embarrassed.

"But you three are better now," Zoey adds trying to change the direction this was going.

"I guess. But this is only my first town," Leon adds.

"What about your hometown or Sandgem Town?" Zoey asks.

"I really don't count it as my first one on my journey," Leon says adds quickly, hoping it wouldn't sound weird.

"Ah," Zoey says seemingly accepting this answer.

"So how are you feeling about the contest so far? You think you can win it?" Leon asks trying to change the subject, making Zoey snark at him.

"Yeah. As long as I keep making it, I can get to the top," Zoey says smiling and hiding the snark.

"Oh, good," Leon says as he noticed Amber and Glameow were seeming to have their own conversation while mareep looked completely lost as he watched them.

"Girl talk. Let it fly by," Leon tries to comfort as he pats his head.

"What are you…oh," Zoey says spotting their pokemon.

"Yeah. Something we guys will never get," Leon says smiling.

"If it helps, I don't really get it myself," Zoey admits.

"Seriously? Even though you are a girl yourself?" Leon asks surprised.

"Being a girl doesn't mean you understand. Truth is, most try to be as confusing as possible or make it up as they go along," Zoey informs.

"Oh. Thought you would always try to keep us away," Leon says thinking to how many times the girls in his world did this.

"It's mostly to mess with boys I think," Zoey says as Leon actually wrote that down. "Seriously?"

"It might help me deal with girls who do this on purpose," Leon explains before looking first to the pokemon then to Zoey, his eyes betraying he was thinking of her too when she said that. "Sorry."

"You were thinking that about me, weren't you?" Zoey asks.

"No. Of course not. Besides, why would I bad mouth the one helping me?" Leon asks looking ashamed.

"Because all boys assume all girls speak a second language or something like that," Zoey says bluntly.

"You girls ignore us," Leon counters.

"Thought so," Zoey says smirking from having weaseled it out of him.

"I mean seriously. A lot of you wouldn't give us the time of day. What the heck were we supposed to think?" Leon asks.

"That means you are playing the game," Zoey says, letting him know she was doing that to him teasingly.

"Damn it. I hate that," Leon says as he writes that down as well.

"Oh, this journey will be fun," Zoey says.

'I wonder if Ash's crew have a vacancy?' Leon thinks as mareep joined him in his booth seat which was basically now the guy corner.

"Meep," mareep says hanging his head on the table.

"We best hurry up and finish eating," Leon says noticing the time and they had barely started eating.

"Yeah," Zoey says starting to finish up hers.

* * *

Leon watched with Amber as the contest continued on, starting with Zoey and Ash where Zoey and Glameow won with the buzzard when Ash's aipom nearing to land a focus punch.

"Okay…so almost like battles, but it's a show," Leon says to himself as he watched the next one before getting up to go wait for Zoey because based on his memory, she lost a bit of confidence after beating Ash.

Amber taps his head now. "Chim?"

"Let's cheer her up if she comes out," Leon says looking up to her as they waited.

Amber salutes. "Chim."

Eventually, the door opened, but Zoey wasn't the one who came out. It was Ash and Brock.

"Hi. Are you waiting for someone?" Brock greets spotting Leon.

"Ah, yeah. A friend of mine. Her name is Zoey," Leon says while thinking and noticing Brock's eyes were the exact same from the anime. 'How the freak can you see anything?'

"Oh. Then she'll be right out." Brock says as he and Ash walked off before Zoey walks out of the room frowning.

"So…you look dissatisfied. Was it not what you thought?" Leon asks, surprising her he was there.

Zoey blinks for a bit at him before sighing. "No…it's not the contest."

"I mean with that guy you beat. His name was Ash, right?" Leon asks.

"Yeah. And if he did want to do both contest and gyms, it would never work out for him," Zoey says frowning.

"Too much battle specialized?" Leon asks.

"Yeah. Most of the experience he had was with battles," Zoey says huffing.

"Feel like you lost even though you won?" Leon asks.

"Because he didn't stop thinking of giving up this part of the league after he lost," Zoey mutters.

"And the reason he entered was because of his aipom wanting to compete?" Leon asks making her look back to him.

"How did you know?" Zoey asks crossing her arms.

"Overheard waiting out here for you," Leon says.

"Ah…well…I just hope he doesn't get into the next contest," Zoey says looking down and frowning.

"Do I need to get Alpha Fluff out here to cheer you up?" Leon asks smirking.

"Alpha Fluff?" Zoey asks confused.

"This guy," Leon says bringing out mareep. "I think it is an improvement from puffball."

Mareep rolls his eyes and holds his paws out to her to hug.

"Ok, Alpha Fluff, an improvement, but keep working on it," Zoey says before hugging the pokemon.

"Meep," mareep cheers hugging her back.

"Alright, but do you feel better now?" Leon asks.

"Yeah," Zoey says happily.

"Good. Because you still have the semi-final and finals themselves to win," Leon says trying to encourage.

Zoey smiles at him. "And you can bet I'm going to win."

"I bet you can," Leon encouraged.

Zoey grins now. "Did you bet money on me?"

"You can do that?" Leon asks.

Zoey facepalms along with mareep. "You need a lot to learn. Stupid prep schools."

"No. I mean where can you do that?" Leon asks.

"Front desk. They have a betting area," Zoey says rolling her eyes.

"Well, too late now," Leon says smiling at her.

"Yeah. Do me a favor, don't bet on these things," Zoey says pointing at him.

"Yes ma'am," Leon says before Amber jumps onto mareep and pats Zoey's arm.

"At least they know how to cheer up a girl," Zoey says petting them back.

"I am cheering for you as well. I just have faith you will win," Leon informs, making her snark a bit at him.

"Geez. You trying to take me out on a date or something?" Zoey teases.

"I think you are the type that decides that," Leon says.

"Oh, you think I like being in charge, huh?" Zoey asks.

"Am I wrong?" Leon asks.

"Partially," Zoey says simply.

"Well, I will have time to learn more about you on this journey. Also, I want to make a bet with you," Leon says.

"Shoot," Zoey says scratching Amber bearing the ears.

"I bet I can predict your final opponent and If I am right, you have to buy us donuts," Leon says smirking.

Zoey scoffs amused. "You're on."

"Alright, I say it will be that Dawn girl," Leon says confidently.

"Get ready to eat something else," Zoey says chuckling.

"We shall see," Leon says, knowing this was a little bit cheating.

* * *

Just like Leon remembered, Zoey did face Dawn and Dawn lost in the end. After the match was over, Zoey scanned the crowd for Leon before heading backstage to get ready for the final. "Amber looks like we are getting donuts today."

Amber drools at the prospect of eating another sweet thing.

"To victory," Leon says patting her head.

Amber gives a victory sign with her hands at that as they watched the next battle with half interest. 'How is it no one ever realized she was from team rocket…how are they even still around actually?'

Amber tilts her head. "Chim?"

"Amber, after Zoey wins, I want you and Alpha Fluff to give her hugs as thanks for taking us out for donuts," Leon instructs.

Amber salutes and smiles.

Leon smiled and waits till the final match gets underway and Zoey didn't let him down and won it, leaving on the award ceremony. Leon smiles as he gets up with the crowd and leave and brings out Alpha Fluff. "Ok you two, there she is. Go get her," Leon says spying Zoey talking to Ash's group in her regular clothes again.

"Meep!" "Chim!" both pokemon cheer and runs at her with mareep, bringing her down and hugs her the best way he could.

"Guys!" Zoey laughs hugging them back.

"You ok Zoey?" Leon asks walking up as Alpha Fluff just laid on her now.

Zoey chuckles as she tries to stand. "Kinda."

"I see Alpha Fluff took you down," Leon says smirking before hearing a giggle. "She gets the joke," Leon says looking at Dawn.

"Yeah, yeah. Fear the Alpha Fluff," Zoey jokes pushing him off of her.

He snickered as he pops off some static on his fur.

"So Zoey, remember our bet?" Leon asks.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go," Zoey says getting up and cleans herself off.

"Amber here is very excited," Leon says looking to her as she ran around like a hyper kid sugared up.

Zoey gives him an annoyed friendly glare. "A bet's a bet. Let's go," she says walking off.

"See you guys," Leon calls following her with the two pokemon.

"Who was that?" Ash asks confused.

"Must be the one Zoey mentioned," Brock says recalling she mentioned she was mentoring someone.


	4. Chapter 4: Train to Bite

"So Zoey, which ones are you getting?" Leon asks looking at the selection in the shop as they bake new donuts.

Zoey sighs frowning at him. "You owe me later."

"But, I won the bet and I am only looking at one or two donuts for myself," Leon says.

"Good enough," Zoey says crossing her arms. "Make your choices and let's get going."

"Those glazed chocolate donuts look good?" Leon says looking at them.

Zoey points to them and the person behind the counter grabs some and puts it into a bag and waits for more.

"What do you want?" Leon asks her seriously.

"I don't need any," Zoey says.

"Come on, you won. Celebrate a bit," Leon says smiling at her as mareep presses his face against the glass display.

"I would rather not ruin my appetite," Zoey points out.

"Then we save them for after dinner," Leon says pointing her to mareep so she sees what he is doing.

"Meep," mareep says pointing to the glass at a sprinkle covered donut and the pokemon helper picks up a few for him and tosses it into a bag as he drools.

"Adorable, isn't he?" Leon says trying to resist a laugh.

Zoey smiles. "Yeah."

"Oh alpha fluff. Now come on Zoey, you have to pick a few at least," Leon says.

"Alright, fine. I will get the raspberry filled ones," Zoey says shaking her head at mareep.

Mareep cheers to himself as he kept watching his bag be placed at the checkout counter.

"Does glameow eat donuts?" Leon asks as Zoey picked out a few more for a dozen total.

"Kinda…at times," Zoey says.

"You need to give her a bath afterwards?" Leon asks, trying to imagine how she eats them.

"I usually leave her alone on that," Zoey says looking to him. "She and other glameows hate baths."

"So how do you do it then?" Leon asks.

"Tongue bath…by glameow." Zoey says sighing. "I'm not complaining as long as it takes a dip once in a while."

"Before each contest?" Leon asks.

"She lets me do it then," Zoey says shrugging.

"I don't know why, but that sight seems funny to me," Leon says as they walk away with the donuts after paying.

Zoey hums and holds his bag out to him. "Here."

"So what now? We are going to stay the night in the city or start heading out?" Leon asks taking the bag.

"Depends. You want to do anything else?" Zoey asks looking at him.

"No need to ask me. You make the call," Leon says.

Zoey sighs. "And this is your journey. You can't rely on me."

"I want to come along with you though and well…you seem to be the only one in our group who knows where they are going," Leon admits.

Zoey smiles at that and nods. "Alright. Let's get some sleep and head out in the morning."

"Alright…" Leon says stopping as he read a sign.

"What?" Zoey asks looking and reads that the sign says a store has pokemon eggs for sale. "Really?"

"Find this address," Leon says writing down the address listed after setting down the donuts.

Zoey shakes her head. "You know that's a crapshoot…right?"

"Uh huh?" Leon says as mareep keeps trying to walk around to get to the donut bag on his back.

"Seriously. Why an egg?" Zoey asks finally.

"Oh…what?" Leon asks registering her question as mareep kept walking in circles around them.

"Why an egg?" Zoey asks crossing her arms.

"It's a baby pokemon," Leon says making her give him a blank expression.

"But why a baby pokemon?" Zoey tries to understand.

"We are trainers. So we raise pokemon so…umm…" Leon says trailing off.

Zoey raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms still.

"Ok, I get it. The case isn't as strong as I thought it would be," Leon explains, showing that was all he had.

Zoey shakes her head. "Geez."

"Also, Alpha fluff is circling you still," Leon points out.

"Oh. Sorry boy. Here," Zoey says taking his bag off his back and places it into his paws for him.

"Um…shouldn't you just give him one of the donuts as he has no fingers and may end up like what happened with your backpack," Leon says.

Zoey looks to mareep as he digs his head into the bag and obviously tries to bite at the donuts before she picks up the bag and takes one before tossing it towards him and he snaps it out of the air and starts to chew. "How's that?"

"Ma," mareep replies sending crumbs everywhere from its full mouth.

Leon smiles as he watches. "At least I have some great friends…where are we staying anyways?"

"The pokemon center has some rooms," Zoey informs before getting them moving again.

"So…any other tips for me?" Leon asks.

"I hope you enjoyed your break," Zoey says smirking, making Leon suddenly uneasy how she said that.

'Oh, boy,' Leon thinks dreadfully.

* * *

"And that is how you properly feed an electric type," Zoey finishes the next morning as he was half asleep.

Leon stares almost blankly and then yawns.

"Did you not get what I said?" Zoey asks with the same expression when he tried to make a valid argument to go buy pokemon eggs.

Leon yawns again.

"Mareep thunder wave," Zoe instructs.

Amber watches as Leon yells out in pain and falls to the ground twitching as static travels over him. "Chim?"

"You awake now?" Zoey asks innocently.

"Ow…" Leon groans.

"Good. Back to the lesson then," Zoey says as mareep snickered.

* * *

"We got everything, right?" Zoey asks.

"Should be," Leon says looking through his bag.

"Alright. Then time to go. We will be heading north from here. Through the forest of route 204," Zoey says.

"What pokemon are in there and do trainers really try to capture every pokemon they meet?" Leon asks curiously.

"First, do you expect me to know all the pokemon there by heart and two, no," Zoey says.

"I just wanted to know," Leon mutters looking away.

"Now come on. No being down," Zoey says.

"I just wanted to know," Leon slowly shrugs.

"Come on you. No more of that," Zoey says patting him.

Leon sighs. "Please tell me you have a guide."

"I have a map," Zoey says moving along with him.

"Good enough," Leon says taking it and look it over.

"Feeling better?" Zoey asks.

"Yeah…I'll see what I can find on my own," Leon says reading the map closely.

"A river?" Zoey asks.

"Looks like," Leon says.

"You are about to fall in one," Zoey says.

Leon dead stops and moves the map to see he was about to fall into a deep river. "Oh…thanks."

"Come on. Let's find the bridge," Zoey says pulling him along.

"Yes ma'am," Leon only says as he was dragged along the ground.

* * *

"So…um…Zoey, do you prefer sleeping in a tent or not?" Leon asks.

"I like to sleep in tents at times. But sometimes I would sleep outside," Zoey explains.

"What do you feel like tonight?" Leon asks.

"Want some noodles?" Zoey asks almost deadpan as she holds up a bag of it.

"I meant tent or no tent," Leon says matching her expression with his own.

"I'll take no tent for tonight," Zoey says.

"Alright," Leon says looking around, thinking he heard something.

Zoey hums as she goes to find a spot to lay down.

"So do we have to worry about anything?" Leon asks, going silent when he spots a caterpie coming down a tree.

Zoey smiles as she hears him get up and beckon over Amber as he goes over to the capterpie. 'He'll learn.'

"Zoey…you got a friend there," Leon says as she feels something climbs on her.

Zoey looks down and sees the capterpie tilting its head at her. "Oh. Hey, there little guy."

"I have two jokes, but I need to know it's gender," Leon says smirking.

Zoey yawns as she sits up and picks up and holds capterpie. "Let's see…" Zoey says looking the caterpie over and hums as it chitters. "Female," Zoey calls.

"Alright. Looks like you're a chick magnet," Leon says as he ducks behind a tree.

Zoey rolls her eyes and puts down caterpie as she looks at her. "Go get him," she whispers smiling.

"Chim," Amber says walking up.

The capterpie chitters and crawls over to where Leon is hiding and chitters out to him.

"Here," Leon says offering a Oran berry.

"Ca…?" Capterpie seems to ask and crawls over before sniffing the berry and then takes a bite and then takes it and starts eating.

"There is a good girl. Want to come with me?" Leon asks as Zoey smiled as he was doing as she had taught him.

The capterpie chittered happily as she kept eating

Leon then offers his hand to be crawled on by caterpie.

Caterpie seems to smile as she crawls up onto his hand and then up his arm before resting on his shoulder.

"I think I will name you Breeze," Leon says holding up a pokeball.

Breeze smiles and wags her tail as she is sucked into the pokeball without resistance.

"Good day?" Leon asks, still not poking his head out, but doesn't realize she wasn't there anymore.

"Good?" Zoey says from his blind spot before slapping the back of his head.

"Ow," Leon groans rubbing his head.

"That was for the bad joke," Zoey informs smiling before patting his head.

Leon blinks confused and looks at him. "Slapping my head and now patting me?"

"Punishment then distracting for Amber," Zoey says and on cue, Amber jumps onto his head.

"Is this going to be every day?" Leon asks rubbing his head and avoids Amber's perch.

"No, I hope not. I mean, you did learn that from me. I don't think you would take long to learn not to tell bad jokes," Zoey says.

"Oh…I thought it was good," Leon says to side.

"Geez, well, I guess it cannot be helped. Come on, let's get some food in us then sleep," Zoey says.

"Sure. Sounds good," Leon says following.

* * *

"Alright Glameow, shadow claw!" Zoey calls in the practice battle.

"Amber, dodge and use ember!" Leon calls.

Amber smiles and jumps to the side before unleashing a torrent of small flames that singe parts of glameow's fur.

"Not bad, but can you avoid glameow's shockwave?" Zoey questions before glameow's tail sparks with yellow electricity and a ball of blue electricity appears at the end of it before being fired at Amber in beams.

"Amber, move!" Leon yells afraid now and Amber tries to dodge before being hit and shocked before hitting the ground. "Chim…"

"Are you ok?" Leon asks rushing over and picks her up.

"Chim…" Amber moans as her eyes had swirly eyes.

"I guess that is the end of the practice battle," Zoey says walking over.

Leon sighs. "Guess I need more work."

"It was an improvement and Amber is getting better with her new attack," Zoey encourages.

"Yeah…aren't you?" Leon asks as Amber picks herself up now and sits up in his arms.

"Chim," Amber says nodding.

"Good girl," Leon says petting her head.

"Now what about Breeze? You think she is doing well?" Zoey asks.

Leon looks over to Breeze as she tackles a rock and trains herself to become stronger. "Going along well."

"Breeze, don't hurt yourself," Zoey calls.

Breeze chitters at them before going back to tackling and breaks the rock in half and cheers chittering.

"Whoa…she is far stronger than most caterpie," Zoey says surprised.

"That's awesome. Come here, Breeze. I got a reward," Leon says almost drooling as he holds up another Oran berry.

Breeze happily chitters as she crawls over smiling with her eyes.

"You did good," Leon says feeding it to her and rubs her head.

Breeze chitters as she eats away and Amber rubs her head as she watches a bit jealous.

"And Amber?" Zoey asks.

"I saved something for her," Leon says.

"Which is?" Zoey asks.

"Amber," Leon says showing her the last donut.

Amber cheers and rushes over before snatching it with a jump and starts to snack on it. "Chim!"

"Knew you would like that," Leon says as she eats the jelly donut.

"Chim! Chim!" Amber cheers.

"And that just leaves Alpha Fluff over there still napping," Leon says looking at the napping mareep.

"Meep. Meep. Meep. Meep," mareep murmurs as he snores.

"How can we train him if all he does is sleep?" Leon asks looking to Zoey for the answer.

Zoey hums. "You can just train him in his sleep."

"How about somehow jump into his dreams?" Leon asks sarcastically.

Zoey remains silent at that.

"No answer?" Leon asks sweatdropping.

"No…it's just there is a way," Zoey says.

"So…will you tell me it?" Leon asks.

"Nope," Zoey says simply.

"I see. How far is the nearest water source?" Leon asks.

"Just a bit of a walk down that way," Zoey says pointing in a certain direction.

"Be right back," Leon says before soon returning with water.

Zoey smiles greatly as she watches Leon dumps the water onto mareep and makes him squeals and run around trying to fling the water off of him and his coat.

"Ready to train now?" Leon asks.

Mareep frowns at him now.

"Come on, Breeze already smashed a rock with a tackle and Amber has been training with Glameow," Leon says pushing him along to Zoey.

Zoey kept giggling as she waits for the slow and lazy pokemon to get over to her. "You need to work out and you are going to get it."

"Lead the way Zoey," Leon says smirking.

Mareep hangs his head as Zoey leads him to another clearing to train as Leon looks toward Amber and Breeze still eating away. "So…how's the food?"


	5. Chapter 5: First Gym

"That's it fluff," Leon encourages as mareep climbs over a bunch of roots.

"Reep," mareep grunts still climbing.

"Gotten better since last week, hasn't he?" Leon asks looking to Zoey.

Zoey slowly nods. "Yeah. He has improved. Could be better."

"Well, he is quadrupedal with a lot of fleece," Leon says.

"Meep!" mareep calls to them a bit insulted.

"Ok, he moves well despite that," Zoey admits.

"Thought so. Let's see…" Leon says to himself as he thinks.

"Meep!" mareep calls triumphantly, finally making it to the top.

"You know, I think I have a good nickname for him now," Leon says smirking.

"Something other than Alpha Fluff?" Zoey asks.

"How about Beacon?" Leon asks.

"How did you get that name?" Zoey asks.

"It just came to me. What do you think? Like the name Beacon?" Leon calls to the mareep.

"Meep!" Beacon calls back.

"I think that is a yes," Leon says as Amber and Breeze came up to them with Zoey's Glameow.

"So…more training?" Zoey asks smiling.

"I think…we are nearly ready for our first battle," Leon says now sounding more confident, making Zoey smile.

"Well, we just need to find one," Zoey says thinking.

"What was the next town again?" Leon says pulling out his pokedex to look up the map and found it was Eterna City. "Eterna city. There is a gym there, right?" Leon asks.

"Yeah. The Eterna City gym," Zoey says as a matter of fact.

"Oh…that one specializes in grass, right?" Leon says before seeing her flip through a book, looking it up.

"Yeah. That's correct," Zoey says stopping on a page and shows it to him.

"So that is the gym leader, huh? Alright. I am convinced and ready to go," Leon says smirking as Breeze and Amber got on his shoulders to look.

"Really? You…ah fuck it. Other trainers got by on their starters," Zoey mutters to herself.

"What? No faith in the one you are teaching?" Leon asks.

"No. It's just that you're a complete newbie," Zoey says smirking.

"Who you have been teaching," Leon says smirking back.

"Still a newbie," Zoey says poking his chest.

"Well, this newbie is going to go for it," Leon says as Beacon cries, make them look to him as he tackles Leon.

"Ow!" Leon cries out as he is sent down.

"I think you have grown on Beacon," Zoey says snickering as Beacon snuggled.

"Yeah. Feels like it," Leon groans getting back up as he holds Beacon.

"Ready to continue training?" Zoey asks as they continued on.

* * *

"We are sure this is the right way?" Leon asks looking to Zoey.

"Yeah," Zoey says looking at the map.

"You sure? I think we have passed that tree four times now," Leon says getting annoying at that sound that kept sounding out.

"I know what I'm doing," Zoey says frowning.

"What is that pecking sound?" Leon says, no longer being able to stand it.

"I don't know but it is annoying me too," Zoey says irritably before they started looking for the source and see two bird pokemon pecking at a tree.

"Pokedex, don't fail me now," Leon says trying to identify the pokemon with it.

"Pikipek, the Woodpecker Pokémon. A Normal and Flying type. It can unleash sixteen pecks per second to drill a hole into a tree where it stores food," the pokedex says.

"One for each of us?" Leon asks.

"Looks like," Zoey says before whistling towards them and takes out a pokeball.

"Breeze, come out," Leon calls throwing a pokeball as Glameow gets off Zoey.

Breeze chitters and sees the pikipek and glares at them as the two birds land on the ground and glare at them.

"Round one, fight," Leon jokes as the four pokemon charged. "Breeze, tackle!" Leon calls as Breeze moved quickly and goes for a tackle as the pikipek went for a peck.

"Glameow, use Thunderbolt!" Zoey calls before Glameow was surrounded by an electric aura before sending it to the small bird pokemon, only for it to dodge quickly to their shock.

"How?!" Leon yells only for Breeze's target to dodge as well. "Wow. They're fast…Breeze, string shot like we practiced!" Leon calls and Glameow, hearing this, quickly ran as Breeze started shooting it's string shot everywhere, making a spider web-like cage around all four before any could escape, confining them in a close space to fight. "And you thought it was too advanced for Breeze at this point," Leon says smirking.

"Shut up," Zoey yells annoyed as she tries to concentrate on the fight. "Thunderbolt again!"

Glameow, hearing this, shot it at the center of the cage, electrocuting it, sending waves of electricity everywhere in crescent moon like waves. Hitting both pikipeks and sending them to the ground in a heap as they were unable to dodge. "Did you plan that?" Leon asks surprised.

"Kinda," Zoey says frowning at how the moves turned but she attributed it to the string shot cage.

"You didn't know that was going to happen, did you?" Leon asks as Breeze celebrated by jumping up and down, not having been hit at all.

"…no…" Zoey admitted.

"Going to use that in a contest?" Leon asks.

"Was. Going to have to work on it," Zoey says getting out a pokeball.

"Well…what is Breeze doing?" Leon asks seeing Breeze shooting string up into the air, letting it land on herself.

"That's…evolving," Zoey says as Breeze starts to glow.

"Wait? So soon?" Leon asks.

"Bug pokemon usually evolve quickly," Zoey informs as Breeze kept cocooning itself.

"Good to know…I'm not becoming one of those trainers who just have metapods," Leon says as he gets out his own empty pokeball.

"Metapod," Breeze says.

"Oh. She's done," Leon says looking over at the cocoon pokemon and rips the cage open before picking her up and tosses a pokeball to a pikipek as he kept looking Breeze over. "How the heck do I train you?"

"Metapod," Breeze says happily.

"She can't move as well like that. So why not use string shot to do so?" Zoey asks catching the other pikipek and gives him his pokeball with his new pokemon in it.

"At least she would look cute doing it," Leon says and Breeze chittered happily.

"Oh, look at you and your metapod," Zoey teases a bit excited getting a pokemon she had never heard of before.

Breeze seems to smirk with her eyes before firing a string shot at her and gets it into her hair and makes her cry out as she falls to the ground. "I think that's her way of saying thank you. Good thing string shot is biodegradable," Leon says smirking.

"Yeah. Your welcome," Zoey says as Glameow snickers at her.

* * *

"Ok. Finally out of the forest," Leon says in relief.

"Told you I knew the way," Zoey says smirking.

"About a week later," Leon reminds smirking back.

"Shut it!" Zoey pipes back annoyed.

"Well, there is the pokemon center. We are going to go there now for food and to get our pokemon checked up?" Leon asks pointing it out.

"Yeah. It's been awhile since I had a hot shower anyway," Zoey says stretching.

"Same," Leon says sighing, seeing her looking a bit happier. "You doing ok?"

"Yeah. Why? I still got string shot in my hair?" Zoey asks rolling her eyes amused.

"No. You seem more relieved than that," Leon says.

"I just want to be back under some AC. Come on. Let's rent a room and get our troublemakers checked out," Zoey says walking off.

"Alright," Leon says following her into the pokemon center and soon found himself lying on a bed in the cool AC and listens to the shower running in the other room.

"You upset that we have to share a room?" Leon calls.

"Kinda!" Zoey calls back.

"Well, it can't be helped. After all, this was the only available room," Leon calls.

"You're going to be sleeping on the floor if you keep mentioning it," Zoey falls.

"There are two beds," Leon reminds as he turned on the TV and finds a rerun of the last contest Zoey was in. "Hey Zoey, they are showing your last contest on the TV."

"Anything good?" Zoey asks.

"You winning," Leon calls smirking.

"Good," Zoey says coming out in a towel and watches the show for a bit before going to get her clothes.

"Let me know when I can open my eyes, alright?" Leon asks having closed his eyes the moment he heard the door open.

"Yeah. Sure," Zoey mumbles putting her clothes on now. After a bit, she looked at him and was about to say something when she noticed he had fallen asleep. "At least he doesn't have to worry now," she says to herself as she turns off the TV and falls onto her bed before falling asleep as well.

* * *

"Alright you four, are you hyped?" Leon asks before getting four loud calls of confirmation from his pokemon.

"Someone's excited," Zoey says walking to him smiling.

"Oh, Zoey. Did we wake you?" Leon asks.

"Yeah. Can hear you cheering from a mile away," Zoey jokes.

"Sorry about that. I just want all of them ready for battle," Leon says before Beacon walks forward and pushes Zoey down before laying on her.

"Well, I got a pillow for that," Zoey says smirking.

"Reep," Beacon says approvingly.

"At least there's good news of that since I might be allowed only three pokemon," Leon says thinking now.

"You find which one is going to be cheering for the rest?" Zoey asks making Leon laugh. "What's so funny?"

"I pictured Beacon as a cheerleader with pompoms when you said that," Leon informs trying to restrain his laughter.

Zoey snarks and Beacon angrily chatters at them.

"There is male cheerleaders Beacon," Leon informs.

Beacon huffs and looks away frowning.

"But he would still be dressed in a skirt," Leon says to Zoey.

"I'll make sure of that," Zoey says grinning evilly towards Beacon.

"Next time," Leon says sparing Beacon.

Beacon sighs in relief.

"Alright. Come on Beacon. Let me up," Zoey says.

Beacon meeps and jumps off of her.

"Alright. You three, time to go battle," Leon says.

The rest of them cheer happily and gives little attacks near them to show their readiness.

Leon smiled as he returned them to their pokeballs as Beacon followed with Zoey to the gym.

"You sure you're ready?" Zoey asks.

"I am very confident in it. Especially the moves you help teach Amber, Breeze, and Rhythm," Leon says.

"You're welcome. That's a thousand pokedollars," Zoey says with a straight face as she holds out her hand.

"Beacon will pay that off with snuggles," Leon says smirking making Beacon snicker.

Zoey shoves his shoulder chuckling. "Shut up!"

"Beacon is the snuggle master," Leon jokes.

Beacon sparks his fluff at that.

"You wouldn't do that to me, right?" Zoey asks smiling at him.

Beacon sparks his fluff again.

"Do it and I'll have Glameow freeze you," Zoey promises smirking.

"Meep," Beacon says meekly stopping.

"I swear, you are a mother," Leon says smiling.

"What was that?" Zoey asks turning back to him.

"Nothing," Leon says looking away.

"That is what I thought," Zoey says before they all walk in silence till they reach the gym. Soon they were lead further inside by the referee where they met the gym leader.

"Ok guys, you ready for this?" Leon asks looking at Beacon as he was the only one out right now.

Beacon cheers at that and gives some air punches as best he could.

"Hi, welcome to my gym," the gym leader greets.

"Hey…so it is the usual rules given to everyone?" Leon asks, picking up Beacon and pets his head.

"Three on three," Gardenia informs.

"Fine by me," Leon accepts as he puts Beacon down and lets him go onto the nearby battlefield. "And you?"

"An electric type, huh? Alright, I am interested," Gardenia says before throwing out a pokeball and a Cherubi comes out.

'Cherubi, huh? If memory serves, you also have a Turtwig and a Roserade. Let's test the waters, shall we?' Leon thinks. "Beacon, let's start off with charge, shall we?" Leon asks and Beacon nods before his wool starts to spark.

"You are working on building strength. Better be careful. You only get one shot on the next move," Gardenia warns. "Alright cherubi, let's start out turn off with tackle," Gardenia calls and Cherubi rushes forward towards Beacon with surprising speed.

'That has to be Chlorophyll,' Leon thinks watching it as Zoey watches from the stand. "Beacon, thunder wave," Leon says, smirking making Gardenia go wide-eyed.

"Dodge it!" Gardenia calls, but too late as cherubi was having a hard time stopping when hit with light blue electricity from Beacon.

"I can't believe that worked," Leon mutters to himself as he watches the poor pokemon try to step back, but freezing up as electricity dances all over it.

"Try and shake it off," Gardenia calls a little panicked.

"Beacon, time to try that new move we have been working on," Leon says smirking, hearing the panic in Gardenia's voice. Beacon, hearing him, starts moving side to side before starting to dance.

"A rain dance?" Gardenia questions a little now, watching the sheep pokemon bust a move.

"Bingo," Leon says as storm clouds start to form as Beacon seemed to be having fun dancing.

"He's really going at it," Zoey notes in the stands as she watches the fluffy pokemon still move around, the area starting to get wet.

"Beacon, thunder shock," Leon says smirking, before the move hit cherubi, obviously doing more damage than it should.

"Oh. Get out of there! Now!" Gardenia tries to plead.

"Too late," Leon says as Beacon's thundershock kept hammering him, knocking it out.

"Well…this is unexpected," Gardenia notes as she returns cherubi.

'The rain, huh? Clever you two,' Zoey thinks watching as Gardenia brought out Turtwig.

Leon hums as he tries to figure this out now. 'What to do here?'

"Turtwig, let's go with leech seed," Gardenia calls.

"Double team, now!" Leon yells immediately as turtwig looks to launch a seed from the top of its head. Beacon quickly did so, barely avoiding taking a hit from the seed and turtwig was surrounded by dancing mareeps.

"They're dancing," Zoey says dryly. "The double team is dancing."

"Beacon, you can stop the rain dance now," Leon says sweatdropping.

Beacon blinks. "Meep?" he mumbled out before standing on his four legs again.

'Beacon likes to dance, huh?' Zoey thinks smirking as Leon tried to decide what to do next.

"Turtwig, leaf storm," Gardenia calls and turtwig starts launching the attack at the mareeps in front of him, making them disappear one by one.

"Beacon, flash!" Leon calls, covering his eyes and making Zoey do so as well out of instinct from all the training.

Gardenia cries out as well as turtwig when Beacon cries out and makes a large flash of light, blinding the both of them.

"Thundershock!" Leon calls opening his eyes after hearing Gardenia cry out.

Gardenia groans as she tries to rub her eyes before hearing turtwig scream in pain for a bit and then nothing happening. "What just happened?" she groans.

"Turtwig is unable to battle to battle. The winner is mareep," the referee calls.

Gardenia groans as she still rubs her eyes. "Give me a moment."

"Take your time," Leon calls as Beacon walks over to him. "How are you doing buddy?" Leon asks and Beacon gave him a tired reply. "Gotcha, you can rest for now," Leon says patting Beacon's head.

Beacon meeps and walks up to his side, still being petted.

After a bit Gardenia, finally was ready to continue the battle, already returning turtwig back to its pokeball. "Not bad. You have done better than the last seven challengers to the gym. So how many badges you got so far?" Gardenia compliments while sneaking in the question thinking he had to have quite a few.

"None so far," Leon answers honestly.

"Is that so…?" Gardenia question, looking him over and tries to see how new he is to this.

"Breeze, you're up," Leon calls throwing his pokeball and out came his metapod.

Breeze groans and stares at Gardenia, waiting for whatever she might send out next.

"A metapod, huh?" Gardenia asks before sending out Roserade.

"Breeze, brace yourself. This won't be easy," Leon says to the excited bug pokemon.

Breeze only groans happily, glaring down at the roserade.

"Oh, your metapod is raring to go, huh?" Gardenia asks smirking.

'That is right. Underestimate Breeze like you did with Beacon here,' Leon says bending down on a knee as he scratches Beacon's head.

'What are you doing? I know Breeze is resistant to grass type moves but as a metapod…their speed is greatly reduced,' Zoey thinks.

"Begin!" the referee calls.

"Breeze, string shot!" Leon calls almost immediately.

"Roserade, keep dodging and use flash!" Gardenia calls as Roserade dodges.

"Breeze, spin the web," Leon says.

Gardenia watches surprised as the string shot starts to wrap around Breeze, making a makeshift cocoon dome now.

'You are not going to try that,' Zoey thinks as she spies Breeze sneak out the back of it into the bushes.

Leon smirks all the while. "Well? Aren't you going to attack the shield?"

"Oh, squirtleing up, are you?" Gardenia asks before roserade start to use magic leaf on the dome.

'Squiretleing up…is that the pokemon equivalent of turtling up?' Leon thinks.

He is broken out of his musings as the leaves start to hit the cocoon and break apart the string shot into pieces before it opens a hole in it the cocoon and finds nothing in it.

"What?" Gardenia asks confused.

Leon smirks as he hums knowingly.

"Where is your pokémon?" Gardenia questions, trying to keep an eye out.

"Could be on your back," Leon jokes.

Gardenia raises an eyebrow before curiously looking over her shoulder on her back and feels around it before sighing in relief.

"Breeze, time to wrap roserade up," Leon says after a bit of time where both Gardenia and roserade tried to find Breeze.

Out of a tree came a new string shot and it latched one of roserade's arm before Breeze launched herself out of the tree and starts riding the line around roserade.

"Magical leaf!" Gardenia yells desperately as she tries to see how the string shot is working.

"Too late," Leon says smirking as roserade got its arms tied down by the string shot as Breeze kept swinging around roserade on momentum alone.

"Okay. This is not bad. But can he really knock that one out with a metapod?" Zoey questions.

"Breeze, tackle!" Leon calls.

Breeze, hearing this, cuts her line to roserade and shoots it at one of the trees using the momentum she still had to slingshot her around the tree and straight at roserade's head, knocking her out from the impact.

"Okay…that works," Zoey concludes as she gets up and starts to head down to him.

"The battle is over. The winner is the challenger," the referee informs as Breeze celebrated.

'That was one unorthodox gym battle,' Gardenia thinks as Leon goes to pick up Breeze.

"Nice job girl," Leon says proudly.

"Metapod!" Breeze cries out happily as Beacon walks up.

Beacon walks up smiling before meeping up at them.

"You did great too Beacon," Leon says petting his head.

"Meep," Beacon chirps happily.

Gardenia smiles to roserade as she helped her pokemon up and got her untied. "You did great."

"Rose…" Roserade groans rubbing its head.

"We will get you some headache medicine soon," Gardenia says.

"Rose," Roserade chirps and just smiles as it is sucked back into a pokeball.

Leon hums as he thinks on that before looking to his two pokemon. "Maybe…"

"Here you are," Gardenia says presenting him with the badge proudly.

"Thanks," Leon says smiling before Beacon advanced on Gardenia.

Gardenia hums as she looks down at Beacon smiling up at her before yelling as Beacon pounced on her and nuzzles her. "Cute," Leon says chuckling.

Gardenia chuckles and tries to push Beacon away before he starts sparking. "Oh no," she mutters as Leon and Zoey stay back before hearing Gardenia yell out as she is electrified.

"Beacon," Leon says scoldingly.

Beacon snickers as he jumps off of Gardenia and struts toward them, Gardenia left a sooted mess with her hair standing on end.

"Sorry. Beacon is a troublemaker," Leon apologizes.

"I can feel that," Gardenia mutters, huffing out black clouds of soot. "Ow."

"He does it to us as well," Zoey says before Beacon hugs her and doesn't shock her.

"But he is mischievous," Leon warns and points to Beacon's snickering face.

"And loves to dance apparently," Gardenia asks.

Beacon cheers and starts to dance around again, mistakenly using rain dance and causes it to rain and clean off the soot on Gardenia.

"Yeah…we are still working on that," Leon informs.

Gardenia sighs as she cleans herself off a little. "It's fine. But you beat me fair and square," she adds as she watches the little sheep dance.

"So what is next for you?" Zoey asks as Beacon seems to be falling asleep from the sound of the rain.

"Maybe do all the gyms," Leon says to himself, wondering what to do next.

"Well, we have to head back south," Zoey informs.

"Why south?" Leon asks curiously.

"The next official contest for me is back in Jubilife City," Zoey informs.

"Oh. Then let's get going. Better hit the road and get there early," Leon insisted.

"Hope to see you again soon," Zoey says waving to Gardenia.

Gardenia waves back as she still tries to clean herself off. "That is one angry mareep."

"Beacon, come on you," Leon says patting Beacon's head as he kept dancing.

Beacon meeps and dances after them.

"I think we found Beacon's calling," Leon says sweat dropping as he talks to Gardenia who watches Beacon dancing after Zoey.

Gardenia chuckles as she wrings the water out of her hair and gets the soot out. "If battling doesn't work out, you can have him do contests."

"I am considering it," Leon says looking at her.

Gardenia hums as she notices the look. "Reason you are staring at me?"

"I find you kinda cute is all," Leon says before quickly making a beeline to Zoey who hadn't heard that.

Gardenia blinks confused for a moment while keeping a grip on her hair before grinning. "Now that's adorable."


	6. Chapter 6: New Addition

"Hey, I got an official update," Leon says in their room at the pokemon center.

Zoey hums as she writes down something in a notebook. "What is it about?"

"I got five dollars more from last time. They must have registered my first badge," Leon says happily.

"Yeah. It takes about one business day to do that. Sometimes it takes a week during the finals of both the league and contest finals. Reason being is that everyone is rushing for the last ribbons and badges. Sometimes, some people are left out of them because it wasn't registered in time. So if you are going for it, be careful," Zoey warns. "And don't let that go to your head. You have more gyms and battles to do."

"I feel like a big reason we won as well is we didn't battle like normal trainers did," Leon says thoughtfully, laying back down on the bed.

"True. You didn't go head on. That is something not most would try. Especially with their first gym," Zoey describes.

Leon hums as he thinks about how to handle the other gyms.

"If you are thinking of some training, let your pokemon rest up. Let them enjoy this night as like a victory party," Zoey notes, looking at the pokemon watching TV.

"Maybe a walk would do me some good. Maybe I can come up with some more crazy ideas," Leon says getting up and leaving. "Maybe even one for Breeze to try," he says chuckling a little.

"Don't spend too much time out there. Plus, like you said, we need some rest before heading out as early as possible," Zoey says smiling as she writes down another combination.

* * *

Leon yawns happily as he lays on some grass and stares up at the sky. "Okay. Next contest, then gym…how the heck am I going to pull off another Ash style move? That was a fluke. Maybe…maybe Beacon can blind. Then I could go in with a heavy hitter and keep doing it again and again," Leon mumbled to himself as he thinks of some plan and deviations.

"Thinking hard about the next battle?" Gardenia suddenly asks as she walks up and looks down at him.

"Yeah. Should I go with a military-style move and Gardenia?!" Leon exclaims as he now looks at her shocked. "Um…what are you doing here?"

"You called me cute. I can't ignore that," Gardenia points out.

"…you're not going to stalk me now, are you?" Leon asks, making her laugh.

"No. I won't be doing that. Besides, you are quite an anomaly. How did you come up with that moves anyway?" Gardenia questions as she smiles.

"Well, it's like this. I have never been a fan of the no-win scenario. So when someone, even if myself, tells me something can't be done, I just can't accept it and start brainstorming on a way to do it like make Breeze very mobile even though she is a metapod right now," Leon admits.

Gardenia hums. "So you are not training like a normal trainer. That is good. Most trainers I battle are boring," she admits smiling. "You are still staring up at me."

"I have to ask, is that your hair that is black or a bandana?" Leon asks.

Gardenia simply reaches up and grabs onto a cloth under her hair and pulls it off to show a bandana. "Do you know how hard it is to keep your hair clean of stuff from bug pokemon?"

"So it isn't your hair. For the entire battle, I was thinking your hair color was orange and black," Leon says.

"You kept thinking of my hair color that whole battle?" Gardenia asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Well…in the pauses," Leon admits.

Gardenia shakes her head amused now. "Well, you are interesting enough," she says before looking up at the sky where he was looking.

"So what are you up to? Leaving your gym for a bit?" Leon asks as they were no longer in her gym's city.

"Kinda. I figure you can make things fun. Plus, I can learn a bit from you," Gardenia explains.

"From me?" Leon asks in surprise.

"You beat me too easily. I have to learn something that I can surprise other trainers with," Gardenia explains.

"So what about the gym? Does the league send a replacement or close it down till you return?" Leon asks.

"I have a backup leader. All gyms have that," Gardenia says smiling and looks back down to him. "Are you going to keep laying there?"

"If you are coming, then here he comes," Leon says sitting up and sees Beacon approaching.

Gardenia slowly turns around and sees the sheep running towards them. "No!" she yells pointing at him and makes him stop. "No," she scolds slowly.

"Beacon, be polite and no zapping," Leon instructs and Beacon approaches Gardenia again and then hugs her leg.

Gardenia smiles. "Good boy."

"Just so it is clear, we are mostly following Zoey's lead on where we are going as she has contests being a coordinator," Leon informs as he returns Beacon to his pokeball.

"Fine by me. Gives me time to watch you train and see what you are planning," Gardenia shrugs.

"Right now, to get a heck of a lot stronger with my pokemon. You were my first gym leader battle and I still think we need to do a heck of a lot better," Leon says.

"What are you saying? You have obviously got more natural experience," Gardenia points out.

"Well, I did go to a prep school," Leon says making her flabbergasted.

"Prep school? And you know how to do this?" Gardenia questions, leaning down to him.

"What is so bad about prep school? You and Zoey act so negatively to it," Leon says.

"Because it teaches such simple things, it will not help anybody in the real world," Gardenia explains.

"Then why is it even a thing?" Leon asks as Gardenia looks him over.

"Because they will fall back on the teachings so much, they won't listen to new experiences, thinking they are the best," Gardenia huffs and puts her hands on her hips.

"So what now?" Leon asks.

"You talk to me," Zoey says behind him.

Leon freezes up a little now. "Um…Zoey…Gardenia is going to join us…yeah…"

"Is she now?" Zoey asks.

Leon chuckles nervously as he slowly slides away.

"So you just invited yourself?" Zoey asks, looking at Gardenia.

"I can learn a few things from him. Usually, others would wail on my gym or just play the type game. He used some very good intelligence," Gardenia says smirking.

"I guess it won't hurt," Zoey says sighing as Beacon walks up to her and hugged her leg.

Gardenia screeches out and jumps away while keeping her hands on her hair.

"Nice one Beacon. You faked her out very well," Zoey says smirking.

Beacon snickers to himself and hides behind his paws.

"Come on you," Leon says picking his pokemon up to Beacon's delight.

Zoey sighs. "Deal with this one and maybe we can come to an agreement. Besides, you have to deal with shocky here a lot from now on."

"This will be fun," Leon says as Beacon cheers.

Zoey slowly shakes her head amused. "Okay. Let's get some sleep and head out."

* * *

"It's good to be traveling again," Zoey says.

"Well, I did have to figure out my gym battle for a while," Leon reminds.

Zoey smiles at him as he and Gardenia walk with her down the rocky road.

"Now what else to do…" Leon mutters under his breath as he thinks on some moves for the next battle.

"Relax a bit. The next gym on the path we are taking is in Oreburgh City," Gardenia says trying to put his mind at ease.

"Oh. Could still matter if I want to practice with them," Leon explains, holding up Beacon who meeps at them.

"You also need to think about it as he usually battles with rock type," Gardenia reminds.

"Rock…rock…" Leon mumbled as he starts to think about the plan.

"Don't be a rock head," Zoey says.

"Was that a joke or a piece of advice?" Leon asks, turning to her.

"You choose," Zoey says smiling.

Leon stares at her for a few moments. "I'm not going to answer that."

"So what now?" Gardenia asks.

"I'm going to try and catch a water pokemon on our way through route 205," Zoey informs.

"Training here," Leon pipes up.

"What are you training on?" Gardenia asks.

Leon smirks. "That's a secret."

"Who will it involve?" Zoey asks smirking.

Leon chuckles almost evilly. "Let's see…Beacon…Amber…and pikipek."

"What is it?" Zoey asks.

"Ah. That's a secret. Have to wait until it's done," Leon warns pointing to her.

"Really? Even though I am looking out for you?" Zoey asks laying on the charm.

"You're a contest performer. You know how special it is to have secret moves under your belt," Leon shot back.

"But don't you want to tell me?" Zoey asks, putting a finger on his cheek.

Leon blushes a bit. "Now come on Zoey. You know some secrets are good to keep."

"You are getting better," Zoey says before smirking as she backed off.

Leon sighs in relief and takes one step away from her before she tried anything else.

"Oh, how forward," Gardenia says smirking as he walks into her.

Leon eeps before quickly stepping away from the both of them. 'These two are going to be the death of me one day.'

"Why so shy?" Gardenia asks before chuckling.

Leon groans while Beacon snickers a little at him in his arms. "Quiet," he mutters to the mischievous pokemon.

"Alright, let's keep an eye out for a good camping spot in that upcoming forest," Zoey says.

* * *

"It's dark out tonight with the new moon," Leon says as they all gathered around a campfire.

"Not much training for tonight. Maybe just relax," Zoey sighs in relief as she is always laying down on her sleeping bag.

"At least is warm tonight," Leon says as Gardenia looked a bit spooked.

"Why not bring out your pokémon? Let them enjoy the night and sleep out here," Zoey suggested before rolling over.

"Beacon, you mind?" Leon asks and soon Zoey felt something warm climb on top of her sleeping bag.

"Oh great…" Zoey groans and turns her head to see Beacon laying on top of her sleeping bag and snuggling into it. "Just don't shock and I won't kick you off," she mumbled as she closes her eyes.

Leon chuckles before opening the rest of his pokeballs and lets everyone out, all of them looking around confused. "No training tonight guys. Just sleep. Been a long day anyway," Leon voices as he lays down in his sleeping bag before feeling something snuggled up against his neck and looks to see Amber curling up with Breeze somehow rolling over and laying against his side and Rhythm flying up before laying down on his chest. "Rest easy."

"They seem to really care," Gardenia says as she wraps a blanket around herself.

"Why not yours? Get them out and give them a night out here instead of the gym?" Leon asks.

"They are out just somewhere in the trees or around them," Gardenia informs.

"Then get close to us since you're shivering too much," Leon offers.

Gardenia was quiet for a bit before making her way over and wraps the pokemon, herself, and Leon with it.

"I said close…really?" Leon asks, turning his head to her.

"Hey. This is how you stay warm," Gardenia points out.

"Good point…truth be told, I was kinda thinking you would go for Zoey since she has Beacon," Leon admits.

"He is snoring," Gardenia says.

Leon hums before closing his eyes again. "Alright. Just don't bother them too much," he reminds, motioning his head to the sleeping pokémon.

"Don't worry, I won't," Gardenia says, closing her eyes to sleep.

* * *

Zoey yawns as she awakes to Beacon laying on his back atop her with his tongue sticking out to the side. "Ew…" Zoey groans before carefully picking him up and puts him to the side before looking around more as she rubs her eyes. "Guys…?"

"Got breakfast cooking," Gardenia says cooking with a skillet.

Leon yawns as he leans against his backpack, trying to catch more time. "And it's going to be good."

"Did I miss anything?" Zoey asks.

"Just getting ready," Leon mumbled as he scratches his head.

"Oh, no need to rush sleepy head," Zoey says before walking over to him.

Leon hums as his pokémon try to push him up and get him standing while he almost returns to sleep.

"It's alright," Zoey says before pulling him to her and holds his head against herself.

Leon sighs relaxed and nuzzles his head against her without realizing it. "So warm."

"What are you going to do once he realizes?" Gardenia asks.

"Keep him there," Zoey says smiling.

"Zoey?" Leon asks sleepily.

"Yes?" Zoey asks softly down to him.

"Why are you so comfortably warm?" Leon asks.

"Oh…did I hear that right?" Gardenia asks.

Zoey smirks. "Yep."

"Mine," Leon says hugging her.

Zoey grins as she hugs him back tightly. "He'll try to be clueless too."

"Heh. You are going to get some mileage out of this," Gardenia says as the pokemon started huddling around for food.

Zoey keeps grinning as Leon keeps snuggling against her. "So soft…so warm…sleepy…"

"Mine," Zoey whispers into his ear.

"Chim chim," Amber spoke up and holds a bowl of eggs up to him.

"And yours Amber," Zoey says reaching down and pets her.

"Chim," Amber groans happily as she enjoys the petting.

"Leon?" Zoey asks sweetly.

Leon hums as he slowly opens his eyes. "Huh…what…?"

"Wake up!" Zoey calls, making sure she had a good grip on him.

Leon jumps and cries out before noticing where he is and struggles to get out of her grip now. "Um…Zoey!"

"You say I am yours, now you are mine," Zoey says smirking.

"What?!" Leon yells shocked as he still tries to get away.

"You agree on this Gardenia?" Zoey calls.

"Yeah. You two did say that," Gardenia says, still concentrating on cooking and giving some food to the pokémon coming up.

Leon was about to say something when Amber and Glameow started to growl at the bushes to the west of them.

"What is it, girl?" Leon asks as they all look over to the bushes and they see a bipedal small pokémon that looks built with muscles on it. "Is that a machop?" Leon asks to make sure as he takes out his pokedex and almost drops it from the shock he has.

"CHOP!" Machop yells at them as it seems to try and intimidate them.

"Holy crap! A machop!" Leon yells excited and everyone, even the machop, seems a bit confused at his excitement. "I always wanted to meet some of the famous fighting pokémon!"

"He is like a kid in a candy shop," Zoey says sweatdropping.

"Amber, let's catch this one!" Leon calls out excited and Amber was still confused before gaining a battle face and turns to the machop in a stance.

"Ma," Machop says understanding this was now a battle and uses leer.

"Okay…let's see how well he does with a pokémon he likes," Zoey noted as she steps beside Gardenia with the other pokémon.

"Amber, time to take to the trees and keep using ember," Leon calls.

"Chim," Amber calls back, shaking off the leer and runs to the trees before climbing it to a branch and then firing off shots of ember at machop who keeps trying to dodge each one.

"Ma!" Machop calls, trying to catch Amber as she swings in the trees, but only succeeds at tiring itself out till it punches down a whole tree, forcing Amber to jump to a different one.

Zoey, seeing this, whistles. "Machop has some real physical power."

"And that's why it will become part of my team," Leon declares as he watches the battle intently. "Amber, you see the vines?" Leon asks.

Amber looks to the side and sees some vines hanging there before grinning and jumping for it. Amber cheers as she swings freely and keeps firing ember blasts at machop who covers himself with his arms to try to stave them off. "Machop ma!"

"Now tie him up with them!" Leon calls, seeing his chance.

Amber, hearing this, tore off a vine and swung down to start wrapping machop up. Machop tried to struggle against this but Amber kept coming back with one vine after another as she kept tying him more and more up.

"Nice job Amber," Leon calls out, barely able to contain his excitement as he walks over before stopping and throwing a pokeball.

Machop sees he pokeball coming and gets bonked on the head before being sucked in and the balls start shaking. Leon shakes with triumph before it dings and stops shaking. "Yes!"

"I don't believe it," Zoey says a bit flabbergasted.

"Well…this is going to be a fun adventure," Gardenia says happily.

"That makes five," Leon says happily.

Amber cheers as she dances around. "Chim! Chim!"

"You did good," Leon says starting to scratch Amber's head.

"Chim," Amber says proudly and hugs him.

"So what is for breakfast?" Leon asks.

"Um…" Zoey starts as she stares at the pokeball.

"How's egg soup?" Gardenia spoke up.

"Sounds good," Leon says, sitting down as all the pokemon start to crowd around him.

"So…fighting pokémon. Going to catch them all?" Zoey asks curiously as she sits down as well.

"That sounds like some slogan," Leon jokes.

Zoey raises an eyebrow at him.

"But in all seriousness, I don't think that is possible," Leon says getting machop out of the pokeball.

"Ma…" machop groans as he falls flat on his back.

"Have fun?" Leon asks.

"Machop," machop groans from the ground.

"Here," Leon says giving him a bowl.

"Machop ma," machop groans before getting up and starting to eat.

"So Zoey, where do we get fishing rods?" Leon asks.

"Any shop near a good lake. You might get lucky and come across a fisherman willing to give a spare rod for free though that is few and far between," Zoey explains.

"Do you have a rod already?" Leon asks.

"Yeah. You going to catch some fish for us?" Zoey asks, digging into her bag.

"Beacon?" Leon asks smirking as Beacon belched from the food.

Beacon nods and goes over to Zoey before she takes out a folded up rod and Beacon takes it into his mouth before sniffing around and then walking towards the nearest river.

"Beacon!" Zoey calls going after him.

Leon chuckles as he watches them leave before turning to Gardenia. "Now uh…my share?"

"Here you go," Gardenia says chuckling at Beacon and his antics.

Leon sighs as he starts to eat with everyone else finishing up theirs and burping as they lay down for a bit. "So…what's your current pokémon team?"

"Roserade, Turtwig, and Cherubi," Gardenia says.

"Oh…doesn't the league give you more pokémon in case they raise their levels and strength too much and you need to keep it fair?" Leon asks curiously.

"These are my personal pokemon," Gardenia says smiling.

Leon hums at how she didn't answer that question before going back to eating.

"So the chance of Beacon being the fisher?" Leon asks smirking.

"High," Gardenia says giggling.

"Want to watch?" Leon asks.

Gardenia smiles. "Sure. Let's get going," she says encouragingly and grabs his hand before pulling him away.

When they all arrive, they see Beacon trying to hold the rod in his mouth as Zoey holds a net.

"I can't believe this is working," Leon whispers as they watch before Beacon struggles when the line starts to be pulled and he tugs hard before stepping back as Zoey readies the net before dipping into the water and pulls out a fish. "And it did."

"Beacon deserves a ribbon just for that," Zoey says.

"So how many did you catch?" Leon asks walking up and sees the haul.

"Counting this? One," Zoey informs.

"Really? Well, in this time period, I say Beacon can catch almost ten in less than five, right boy?" Leon asks Beacon who cheers through the rod in his mouth.

"Who did well?" Gardenia asks, scratching Beacon's head.

Beacon chirps happily and nuzzles his back into her hand as Leon looks over the fish. "Two more and done here?"

"You think you can do it?" Gardenia asks.

Beacon cheers and goes back to the water before whipping the line back into the river and waits.

"Right. While we wait, let's talk strategy," Gardenia says sitting Leon down.

"Which part?" Leon asks.


	7. Chapter 7: Background

Days later, Leon and Zoey both had rods from buying one from a local fishing store. Machop had adjusted to being a member of Leon's timing, already working on new moves as the rest spared with him.

"Well…hmm…" Leon hums out loud as he looks through his pokedex while packing away his fishing rod.

"What are you looking for?" Gardenia asks.

"Moves that my pokémon knows…what do you think…should I go train them with a stylish way of moves so it's a double use or what are you doing?" Leon asks as he is now pulled away by his collar by Zoey. "Yes?" Leon asks as someone rushes by with an injured pokemon.

"That's why," Zoey remarks, both looking at the injured zigzagoon carried by a man as he runs to the pokémon center. "Hey. What happened?"

"A buizel is running wild," the trainer calls not stopping.

'…wait. Is this the episode that Dawn catches Buizel?' Leon thinks.

"Come on. Let's go look," Zoey says.

"Or we could walk on…" Leon stops when Zoey gives him a look. "Right. Checking out the trouble."

"Good," Zoey says smiling at him, making Leon look embarrassed.

Both soon ran the way the man came from and come across a river as they see nothing. "So…fish for this pokémon?" Leon asks.

"Yeah…" Zoey starts before stopping and walks away as Leon casts his line.

"Something wrong?" Leon asks, keeping his eye on the bobber. After a bit, Zoey didn't answer and before he could look over, the bobber sank in, signaling he had a bite and he pulled up and a buizel came up with it. "Whoa!" Buizel soon landed beside them, holding a fighting stance as Leon tries to get back on his feet.

"Sorry. Not looking for a battle at the moment. Have this as a consolation," Leon says before pulling out a cooked fish from his bag to give to buizel.

Buizel blinks as it takes the fish confused before looking up at him and then eating and nibbling the fish while still watching him.

"If you are looking for someone to battle, then there is at least one trainer that way," Leon says as he gets ready to cast his line again.

Buizel looks over to where he is pointing as it kept nibbling while Amber raises an eyebrow at him. Buizel soon starts to walk in that direction as it kept eating the fish in its paws.

'Have fun Zoey and Ash,' Leon thinks fishing again and soon hears a few battles happen.

Leon hums as he keeps fishing and soon feels a tug before pulling it up to show a fish hanging from his hook. "Awesome," he says before putting it away into a bag and goes to cast the line.

"Leon!" Zoey calls.

"Yes?" Leon calls back.

"Get your stuff. We are going after that buizel!" Zoey calls.

Leon raises an eyebrow and turns to her as she runs up. "Um…I just sent that one down the road."

"What?!" Zoey yells.

"What happened?" Leon asks.

"It battled us and took our fishing rods," Zoey informs.

"Oh…tough pokémon," Leon says as he pulls in another fish.

"At leas…wait. Why didn't it attack you?" Zoey asks.

"I gave it a fish and sent it on its way," Leon explains, packing up his fishing rod.

"You did what?" Zoey asks.

Leon nods and looks at her. "I gave it fish and told where it can find some good trainers to fight."

"You're coming now for that one," Zoey says dragging him along now.

"Wait! What?!" Leon yells as he is dragged along by her while trying to hang onto his things.

"Having a tough time?" Dawn asks as Zoey and Leon joined them searching for buizel.

"Say that to this guy," Zoey says as she pulls Leon while he collects his things into a bag.

"Zoey told us you got your first badge," Dawn says.

"Yeah, I did," Leon says, now being let up to walk on his own.

"That's great. So you are going for the whole league now? Really convinced?" Dawn asks.

"Yeah, I think I will try it," Leon says.

"Awesome, let's have a battle then," Ash says.

"Um…I thought we were going after buizel?" Leon says.

"Oh, right," Ash says embarrassed.

Leon shakes his head as he looks around. "So…any ideas guys?"

"It headed that way down the river," Brock points out.

Leon hums as he looks to the river and tries to spot anything. "Well…you can try to tempt him with fish."

* * *

'Wow. Team Rocket was more flamboyant in real life,' Leon thinks sweatdropping.

"Now that part is over with…what are we going to do with buizel?" Zoey asks as they all turn to buizel.

"Bui," Buizel says before giving Dawn and Piplup the bring it on gesture.

"He's asking. Might as well give it," Leon says stepping away with the others.

"You ready piplup?" Dawn asks.

"Pip," Piplup declares.

"While they do that, we can have a battle?" Leon asks Ash.

Ash looks excited at that. "Are you kidding? That would be great. Who are you going to battle with?"

"Who are you battling with?" Leon asks, thinking it over.

Ash takes out a pokeball from his belt and holds it up to him. "Staravia. You?"

"Then Rhythm, it's time to battle," Leon calls, throwing one of his pokeballs.

Ash takes out his pokedex when the pikipek comes out and shakes itself before crying out once. "Let's see."

"Pikipek, the Woodpecker Pokémon. A Normal and Flying type. It can unleash sixteen pecks per second to drill a hole into a tree where it stores food. Native to Aholo," the pokedex says.

"A flying type versus flying, huh?" Ash asks smiling as he then throws his own pokeball. "Staravia, let's go!" he calls out and staravia comes out and thrills as it flies and then lands on the ground before Rhythm.

"Alright, we'll start this off. Rhythm, echo voice," Leon calls before Rhythm started to make an incredibly loud shout at staravia which seemed to hurt it.

Ash hums before smiling. "Alright staravia, let's go with quick attack and follow up with gust."

"Rhythm, supersonic, then start using the trees," Leon calls, making Rhythm switch tunes as staravia flew at him before starting to fly away as well.

Rhythm turns his head and uses a loud screeching noise at staravia that made it wobble in the air and slow down as he kept flying, dredging the trees before suddenly turning and making staravia smash into the trunk of one as Rhythm flew back.

"Good job Rhythm. Now you see us, now you don't," Leon calls making Rhythm smirk before ducking into the trees as staravia keeps hitting the trees in it's confused state.

"Staravia! Get it together. Fly up!" Ash calls and staravia tries to fly upward and kept hitting branches before coming out above the treeline as it wobbles in the air.

"Rhythm, keep up your echo voice," Leon calls and soon the sound started to be heard again.

"That is smart. Echo voice, being a sound attack is incredibly difficult to defend against and staravia can't find him even if he wasn't confused," Zoey says, watching with interest trying to observe both battles.

"Staravia, give a whirlwind everywhere!" Ash calls out and Leon blinks.

"Uh oh," Leon voices and turns to Rhythm as staravia starts to make whirlwinds come out from flapping its wings around everywhere in every direction. "Rhythm, rock smash and go for the ground!" Leon calls out and Rhythm immediately dives bombs into the rocky ground and makes a hole as the whirlwinds brush on top of the land. "Thank goodness."

"Staravia, snap out of it!" Ash keeps calling.

Staravia shakes its head before thrilling and looks around, clearly snapped out of the confusion.

"Rhythm, once more, echo voice!" Leon calls before the sound comes again and staravia looks like it had been in a battle for hours now as it wobbles in the air again.

Rhythm soon exits the hole he made and lands on the ground as he looks up to staravia who soon lost its balance and falls and hits the ground.

"Staravia!" Ash calls, rushing forward to catch his pokemon.

Leon, looking up to staravia as he was closer, holds his arms out and tries to carefully catch it before grunting and falling to the ground from the unexpected weight. "Ow. Wasn't expecting it to be that heavy," Leon groans with staravia on top of him as Ash catches up.

"Thanks," Ash says helping them up.

"Star…" Staravia groans as it tries to stand on its talons.

"Pik!" Rhythm calls before he starts glowing.

"It's evolving!" Zoey calls, getting everyone's attention as Dawn catches buizel.

Leon smiles as Rhythm's form changes into a larger and more sharper shape before the glow died down and Leon swears Rhythm just changed into a form of a toucan. "That is awesome. How does it feel Rhythm?"

"Trum!" Rhythm calls hugging him.

"Trumbeak, the Bugle Beak Pokémon, and the evolved form of Pikipek. It attacks its opponents by firing seeds stored in its beak. Native region, Alola," Dawn's pokedex says.

"Stores seeds…hmm…" Leon hums as he smiles and seems to be thinking as he pets Rhythm's head.

"Looks like yours evolved before mine," Zoey says smiling at Leon.

"Zoey. Did you come from Alola, like him?" Dawn asks.

"What? No. We are both from Sinnoh," Zoey informs.

"Yeah…I…uh…" Leon tries to agree.

"We came across them in the woods in route 206," Zoey informs.

"Got lost," Leon quickly spoke up, looking embarrassed.

"It worked out finding them," Zoey says putting him in a friendly headlock.

Leon chuckles nervously still. 'When should I tell them? What's more…what limits should I place?'

"So, what are your plans now?" Dawn asks.

"Well, find my rod and get back to looking for a water type," Zoey says chuckling.

"Maybe buizel knows," Leon offers.

"Where is the fun in that?" Zoey asks.

"Ah…" Leon stops as he sees her expression of grinning. "Okay. Free looking." 'You know, it's been weeks and I am starting to like Zoey more and more. She should have become a companion on the road,' Leon thinks.

"Let's get looking," Zoey says pulling Leon along while still in a headlock.

"Bye," Leon calls.

* * *

"And that's what happened," Zoey recounts to Gardenia.

"Wish I could have seen it," Gardenia says to Rhythm.

"You doing ok adjusting Rhythm?" Leon asks as he and machop helped wash the dishes as Beacon licked clean any extra food.

Rhythm holds up a wing. "Trum," he thrills happily.

"Good to hear," Zoey says, going over to check the dishes. "How about you machop?" Zoey says petting his head.

"Ma," machop cheers and goes back to washing the dishes.

"This the last one. Now Beacon, time to claim your sleeping spot," Leon reminds.

Beacon cheers and rushes around their camping area to find a spot.

"You can head back as well machop. You've earned a break," Leon says looking up to Zoey.

Machop grunts and walks off after putting the towel away.

"So any luck after we split up to fish?" Leon asks taking off his shoes and puts his feet into the river.

"Found my fishing rod…in a small cave," Zoey sighs as she sits by him.

"And you catch any pokemon?" Leon asks.

Zoey nods. "Got a shellos. Took my fishing rod as a bed."

"That's cute," Leon says smiling at her.

Zoey smiles. "Kinda is. Good news is that I have a new pokémon and you got an evolution."

"Thanks again for basically being my mentor," Leon says, surprising Zoey.

"Mentor? I just stuck with you because you were clueless for a bit," Zoey explains.

"That still fills that role," Leon says.

Zoey sighs. "Well…thanks for the compliment."

"I really mean it," Leon says starting to lift his hand but decides against it at the last moment.

"Yeah. Feel that. Any case, we should get some rest. Going to head out tomorrow and deal with the next gym and contest. More training too. I'm kinda curious to see what you will come up with. Considering you used rock smash against the ground and hid there," Zoey recounts smiling to him.

"I look forward to your next contest," Leon said smiling back.

"Would you mind if I borrow some of your tricks?" Zoey asks.

"Feel free," Leon says as Gardenia watched the two with interest as something moved on Leon's foot.

Zoey suddenly hears him shriek and move back from the water only for her to look over and see a magikarp swimming around. Zoey smiles and then sighs. "Still needs work."

"You were sucking on my toes?" Leon asks looking at the pokemon.

"Magikarp," it groans as it looks up to them and flaps its tail around.

"Hum…" Leon says thinking.

"You thinking whether or not to catch it?" Zoey asks.

"Kinda…" Leon hums as he kept watching the fish pokemon.

"What do you think?" Zoey asks moving closer.

"You want to come with us?" Leon asks the magikarp.

"Magi," the magikarp groans, looking up to them almost happily.

"Then come with me," Leon says holding his pokeball in front of him.

"Magi…" magikarp cheers as it jumps out of the water and bumps into the ball before being sucked in as red energy and has the ball close in before beeping.

"Heh. Looks like I have a full team now," Leon says before scanning his new magikarp's pokeball to see it was level nineteen. "Wow. You're a high level," Leon comments.

"What? No way," Zoey exclaimed and walks over to see the screen. "Wow. You are not kidding."

"Poor girl must have been lonely," Leon says petting the ball before bringing magikarp out and rubs her head.

"Magi," magikarp groans happily and seems to nuzzle back.

"You're part of a team now, but maybe it will become more of a family," Leon says to the magikarp as she swims around happily.

Zoey just smiles as she watches the two.

"For now, let's have you rest, ok?" Leon asks, picking magikarp up and holds her.

"Magi," magikarp groans while Zoey gives a few claps to him.

"Not bad. Another part of the team. You're doing better than I expected…maybe you don't need my guidance if you can make it this way with batting and catching," Zoey says smiling.

"I would still travel with you sensei," Leon says a bit jokingly.

Zoey grins. "Good. I might get lonely without something to spice it up. Besides, I need some moves to steal."

"Only if I can do the same," Leon says chuckling.

Zoey shakes her head amused. "Come on. We have to get some sleep. Long day ahead of us."

"Right," Leon says before pulling out a few berries and starts feeding them to magikarp as they walk back.

"Hope you are at least putting her in a pot of water so she remains wet and not dry out," Zoey voices.

"I am," Leon says.

Zoey smiles as she goes over to her tent while Leon prepares his and puts magikarp into a pot of water before she leans into the side and closes her eyes to rest up. "Sleep tight," Zoey calls out as she crawls into her tent.

"You too. Everyone, meet our newest member," Leon informs his team.

They all cry out tiredly before putting their heads down to rest as magikarp groans and lifts a fin without opening her eyes as Leon crawls into his tent to sleep as well.

"And with that, bedtime!" Leon calls.

All the pokemon call out tiredly and Leon takes out the last bit of light.


	8. Chapter 8: Seeing Others

"Magikarp, you happy to be back in the river?" Leon asks as he and Zoey were fishing again.

"Magikarp," magikarp cheers as she swims around their fishing lines.

"She is lively, isn't she?" Leon asks Zoey as Gardenia sips on a milkshake she had bought.

Zoey nods. "As long as she doesn't get caught get on our lines in her excitement."

"Oh, speaking of wi…no. I don't. I thought I had a bite," Leon says a bit disappointed.

Zoey reaches over and pats his back. "You've caught a lot before. You'll get it."

"I know," Leon says as there was a lot of hollering heard coming there way.

Zoey hums as she leans back around before giving her fishing rod to him to hold as she goes to check the noise past the trees. "Just some people. They are loud…maybe drunk," she informs as she walks back to him and takes back her fishing rod.

"Great," Leon says not impressed.

"You will never drink, right?" Zoey asks, turning to him as the noise gets closer.

"I drink soda. Does that count?" Leon jokes.

Zoey chuckles. "Good enough for me. Now I won't have to deal with a drunken loser."

"Who is dealing with these idiots?" Leon asks.

"Not me. As long as we ignore them, we should be fine and they won't notice us," Zoey says quietly now as the noise becomes louder.

"What about Gardenia up there?" Leon asks.

"She would understand," Zoey says simply.

"You know, I can hear you," Gardenia calls before sipping on her milkshake.

Leon chuckles a little. "Yeah. We know."

"Good. Then you will see the payback coming," Gardenia says.

"We're expecting it," Leon teasingly calls as the drunk idiots finally come into their view as they walk along the path. "Ignore. Just ignore them," he says to himself as he concentrates on fishing.

"Hey…look at that guys…it's the weakest *hic* water pokemon ever."

Leon sighs and pets magikarp. "Ignore them, girl," he whispers to her and she dives under the water.

"She upset?" Zoey asks as they heard drunken laughter.

"Maybe…" Leon says, looking concerned as he watches magikarp swim underwater before feeling a tug and starts reeling it in.

Zoey smiles as she watches him reel in the line and sees the water splashing around as it came closer. "Nice and easy," Zoey advises as both of them hear the drunken laughter from behind them, leading them to mostly ignore it.

When the line finally came out of the water, there was a shellder on the line and Leon just smiled at this, already going for a pokeball.

"Hey, why not battle it first? Wear it down?" Zoey suggested.

"Good point," Leon says, starting to think who to battle it.

"Magi," magikarp spoke up as she peeks her head out of the water.

"You know what, I want to shut them up. How about it magikarp? I want you to battle shellder for me," Leon says smiling down at her as magikarp was surprised she was his first choice.

"Magikarp!" she cheers as she jumps into the air before splashing down into the water.

Leon smiles as shellder got what was going on and lets go of the line and drop into the water to face magikarp as more laughter was heard.

"Just ignore them," Zoey whispers to him as Leon got up and smiled.

"Karp!" magikarp calls, full of determination, surprising shellder.

"Alright magikarp. Let's try splashing some water on its face," Leon says smiling as he watches sheller move around.

"Magi!" magikarp calls before splashing shellder as hard as it could, which was more of an annoyance to shellder than anything as it seemed to sigh and the laughter got worse.

"Come on magikarp. Keep trying and make it mess up," Leon says encouragingly.

"Magi!" magikarp calls as the laughter got worse before something hits the back of Leon's head before Zoey hears a bottle shatter behind them and looks to see Leon holding his head as the laughter got louder.

Leon groans as he rubs the back of his head as two more bottles fly toward them and one lands in the river, sailing past them, while another hit against his back. "Ow…shit…" Leon groans before looking at his hand to see blood on it. "Crap…so that's how a bar fight feels," he mutters as Zoey rushes over and looks to his head while taking out a piece of cloth and holds it to his head.

Magikarp had stopped, seeing what had happened. The only one to ever give her a chance who cared had just been hurt. A dark rage started to form in her as anger unlike anything she had ever felt took root and she let out a cry before she started to glow.

Leon blinks slowly as he looks over with the others taking notice and see magikarp glowing brightly before growing into a large snake-like shape that grew bigger than them. The drunk idiots looking like seedlings in headlights as the glow dies down and shows an angry looking royal purple gyarados leering down at them. "Well…that's cool…" he says distinently as his vision waivers. "Why does it look like I am getting drunk?"

"Lay down for a bit," Zoey says as Gardenia tried to sooth gyarados as the drunks ran like there were demons chasing them.

Leon groans as he holds his head still while Zoey carefully leads him to lay down as gyarados leans over to him and groans concerned at him. "Hey…you look awesome."

"He will be fine, but he still wants you to finish your battle with shellder there," Zoey says as shellder looks scared now and trying to sneak away.

Gyarados growls before turning to shellder and chases after it while it tries to swim away.

"Zoey…no way she is going to lose, right?" Leon asks.

"Nah," Zoey says as a loud splash was heard.

"Can you throw my pokeball for me?" Leon asks.

Zoey nods as she takes his free pokeball and runs off to catch shellder as gyarados swims back and puts her head over him and prods her nose against his side concerned.

"You did good," Leon says patting her nose. "Your name now is Tsunami."

Tsunami growls happily and keeps nuzzling him as Gardenia looks him over while Zoey came back. "Got the little guy. How is he?" Zoey asks.

"Fine. Just a little cleaning and some medicine and he would be fine," Gardenia informs as she checks Leon's head closely.

"What can we do about those drunks?" Leon asks.

"They ran off. But if we see them again, we'll report them," Zoey says reassuringly.

"And if the police show up, what we do?" Leon asks.

"Let them handle things. Why don't you rest for now?" Zoey says, pushing his head back down flat.

"Alright," Leon says patting Tsunami.

"You beat me again. Another evolution," Zoey points out.

"It's not a race," Leon says smiling up at her as he has his eyes closed.

Zoey just pets his head as he starts to relax. 'Now we're stuck here…I'm going to have to kick those punks' asses.'

"While we are here, how about we train?" Gardenia asks as Leon starts to sleep with gyarados watching over him.

"Seriously? I rather watch him and make sure he doesn't fall into a coma," Zoey argues.

"Just asking as he looks alright," Gardenia says as she had a phone out and was calling someone.

Zoey shakes her head before sighing. "Fine…but he starts acting up, the battle is off."

"Yes, I would like to report a few drunks attacked a trainer at the overpass bridge on route 205. Yes. There were four of them, all male. Threw their empty bottles of alcohol at him and his head is bleeding," Gardenia says, making Zoey smirk as she liked where this was going.

Zoey just kept petting Leon's head while Gardenia kept latching on more details.

"Alright, we will wait right here, Look for the purple Gyarados," Gardenia says, hanging up the phone. "A chopper is on its way to pick us up," Gardenia says.

Zoey chuckles. "Not bad. You didn't invoke your gym leader status to hurry it alone?"

"Oh no, they take rescue very serious here because of the cliff part of the path," Gardenia informs.

"Good…should pack up," Zoey says, looking around to their camp.

"Yeah, Tsunami, can you make yourself as visible as possible. People are coming to help him and the easier they can spot you, the faster they can get here," Gardenia says.

Tsunami growls happily and starts to find a place and stretch herself out and kept wiggling around while looking around for anything in the sky.

"Zoey, you mind getting her pokeball while I start. Then after we pack up, we can train," Gardenia says.

"Sure," Zoey agrees while getting up and grabbing the pokeball.

* * *

"Oh, my aching head," Leon groans, awakening to a small hospital room.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Zoey asks, coming into his view.

"Hey Zoey, what happened?" Leon asks.

"Bottle," Zoey reminds, pointing to the back of her head. "Those jerks flung some at you and you got hit really bad."

"Oh…where are we…a resort?" Leon asks, looking around the log cabin like decoration.

"Nah. It's a hospital. Just in the style of a log cabin," Zory explains as she looks closer to his head and moves the bandages slightly to get a look at them.

"How does it look?" Leon asks, holding his head from a bit of a headache.

"Wound has closed up and looks good. Your head hurting you?" Zoey asks.

"Just a headache is all," Leon answers.

"I'll get the nurse," Zoey says getting up.

"I just need something for the headache is all…so what town are we in?" Leon asks.

"Oh, we are in Heartstone town. It's a small town on route 205," Zoey informs, pushing the call nurse button.

"Cool…nurse, how long until I can get moving?" Leon mutters, rubbing his head.

"It will be soon," Zoey informs.

"Not the answer I was looking for," Leon chuckles a little before groaning. "Ow."

"Take it easy. You need to rest a bit more," Zoey says as the nurse came in.

Leon groans. "Hate that. Really want to train."

"We will be here for a while, so just rest up. Beacon!" Zoey calls outside and soon the fuzzball comes walking in.

Leon smiles as Beacon jumps into the bed and snuggles on top of him. "Lazy fuzzball."

"Beacon, you watch him, alright?" Zoey asks petting him.

Beacon gives a salute before nuzzling into Leon's neck. "Eep."

"Why do I see cut marks on his fleece?" Leon asks.

"Well, you see, there was a thunderstorm recently and lightning struck him, making his fur grow quite a bit so we had him sheared and sold the fleece to pay for the medical bill," Zoey informs.

"Eep," Beacon spoke up proudly.

"So you gave your fleece for me?" Leon asks, before hugging Beacon.

Beacon meeps happily and hugs back.

"Right. We'll be staying for a while like we said. There is a festival happening soon and I kind of signed up for the unofficial contest already," Zoey informs chuckling.

"Oh. Then good luck in it," Leon offers.

"You should be up and about by that time," the nurse informs as Beacon adjusted to be laying on Leon's stomach.

"Oh, good, but I have a headache," Leon says happily.

"I will get you some medicine. You stay here and rest," the nurse informs.

"Great. And you Zoey? Going to train?" Leon asks, turning to her.

"Yeah, I and Gardenia are also looking after your pokemon," Zoey informs.

"That reminds me. How's Tsunami?" Leon asks.

"She is fine, but we are letting nurse joy mostly handle her as well since she is so big," Zoey informs.

"Cool. Can you go tell I'm fine now?" Leon requests.

"I will," Zoey assures as she leaves, seeing the nurse return and motioning for her to leave.

Leon waves at her while the nurse gives him the medicine needed.

* * *

"Feel better to be out and about?" Zoey asks as Leon exits the hospital with Beacon.

"Yeah. About time," Leon mutters as he stretches.

"Gardenia is waiting with your pokemon," Zoey reminds as Beacon moved ahead.

"Better not be bored," Leon says smirking.

"Oh, they aren't," Zoey says as they came into view of four more of Leon's pokemon.

"Hi guys," Leon says waving at them and they all rush over and crowd around him, trying to give him a hug.

"Ok, one at a time you all," Leon says bending down to them.

They all cry out happily as Zoey walks over to Gardenia. "How worried?"

"They were concerned," Gardenia says as Breeze somehow managed to get on top of Leon's head.

"Have you guys been training?" Leon asks.

"Ma!" Machop calls happily as the rest were too busy paying him attention.

"Good team," Leon says proudly and pets this head.

"So he knows we are staying for the festival?" Gardenia asks.

"Yeah. Told him when he woke up. Was worried he won't," Zoey voices silently at the end.

"Well, don't worry," Gardenia says smiling before smacking her back, making Zoey grunt.

"Amber, I got an idea for you. Maybe that head smack got it into me," Leon laughs a little while his pokemon smiled sadly at him for that. "Oh, don't give that look. Everything is alright," Leon says picking up Amber.

"Chim," Amber says smiling and hugs him. "Chimchar?"

"Alright. So we are going to be staying for the festival. That means a few things for us to do before the fun is that all…why is it suddenly brighter?" Leon asks.

"You have to be kidding," Zoey spoke up and they all then look to Breeze as she hatches from her cocoon form and evolves in a bright glow before changing and morphing into a butterfly-shaped creature before it dies down to show a butterfree. "Damn."

"Well, that figures. Metapods usually quickly evolve," Gardenia says.

"How quickly?" Zoey asks.

"Around level ten," Gardenia informs, shocking Zoey.

"That's great!" Leon cheers and holds up Breeze as she lands on his hands.

"Free!" Breeze calls.

"I guess she was so happy to see you it pushed her over the edge," Gardenia says smirking.

"…I'm not even going to make a joke," Leon quickly says and pets Breeze who happily thrills.

"Now what are we going to do with her cocoon?" Zoey asks, pointing to it, still on Leon's head.

Leon sighs as he puts Breeze down and takes it off his head. "Caterpillars usually eat this after becoming butterflies," he mutters as he puts it down and wipes his hands on the ground.

"It says here, Butterfree usually eats their cocoons after emerging because they are hungry," Zoey reads from her pokedex.

Leon looks to Breeze and sees her already eating away. "She has that covered."

"Does it look weird to anyone else?" Gardenia ask.

"Not here," Leon voices.

"A bit," Zoey says.

"Well, where have you been staying, the pokemon center?" Leon asks trying to change the subject as it starts grossing out a few of them.

"Yeah. Kinda was worried so I slept there. Gardenia and the others too," Zoey answers.

"Oh…in the same room or will we have two rooms to sleep in?" Leon asks.

"Two. Three if you want," Zoey quickly answers.

"We had a second room rented out?" Gardenia asks surprised.

"Yeah…I gave you the key," Zoey says slowly.

"No, you didn't," Gardenia informs.

Zoey digs around her pockets now. "Oh…silly me," Zoey says, taking out a pair of keys.

"Oh, too bad," Gardenia says smirking.

"What did I miss?" Leon asks confused.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that there were only two beds in the room," Gardenia says smirking.

"Oh. Okay then," Leon says before turning back to his Pokemon.

Zoey said nothing but glared at Gardenia all the while.

"So what events does the festival have besides this unofficial contest?" Leon asks.

"A water pokemon battle. Winner gets a water stone," Zoey explains.

"Oh…that can evolve my shellder when I think he is ready," Leon says.

"Unless he doesn't want to," Zoey adds.

"Well, always nice to have the option," Leon says.

Zoey nods before smiling. "Weren't you going to train?"

"We are…after lunch," Leon says.

A loud rumbling sound made them look to Leon who chuckles nervously. "I could go for some food," Gardenia spoke up.

"Come on you. We can get food and then check on Tsunami," Zoey says grabbing Leon and helps him up.

"I am fine with this," Leon says.

All of the pokemon chatter as they follow or fly after them while going to a place to eat.


	9. Chapter 9: Please Stop Additions

"How is the contest going so far?" Gardenia asks, taking a seat next to Leon.

"Zoey is doing well, but the others are good as well," Leon says.

"Oh. So four left?" Gardenia asks watching.

"Nope, three. Zoey is already in the finals," Leon informs.

"Not bad. You going to treat her to a full course meal if she wins all of it?" Gardenia asks.

"Going to be hard to do as I'm going to the battle contest after this," Leon says.

"You too? What about the gyms?" Gardenia asks.

"The water battle contest," Leon informs.

"Oh. Better prepare then," Gardenia warns. "Some battles are pretty tough since there might be trainers from other regions."

"I have as much as I think I could," Leon says holding Tsunami's pokeball, half the time looking down to it thinking.

Gardenia sees his gaze slightly. "Why not go train a bit? Come up with a plan?"

"It's in fifteen minutes," Leon says getting up.

"What are you going to do?" Gardenia asks.

"Use Tsunami," Leon says.

"Ah. You have first competition nerves," Gardenia says.

Leon slouches. "Yes. Yes, I am."

"Want me to come with you?" Gardenia asks.

"Please?" Leon pleads, looking up to her.

"One moment," Gardenia says, getting up as well before heading back and soon returns. "Ok, Zoey knows what is going on and say relax," Gardenia says walking along.

"Ok, relax," Leon says, taking a deep breath.

"Again," Gardenia orders, walking along with him.

"Relax," Leon says before breathing in again, making her smile.

"There. Now, what battles do you have to do?" Gardenia calmly asking him.

"I don't know. I just signed up with Tsunami," Leon says.

"Well, you just need to battle hard like you and your pokemon did at my gym," Gardenia reassures and the next thing Leon knew, he was on the lake on a boat on the other side of another trainer.

"Alright. Leon from Aquagrass city versus Trike from Jubilife City. Begin!" the ref calls.

"Seaking, go," Trike calls, throwing his pokeball.

"Tsunami, time to battle!" Leon calls, releasing Tsunami to the shock of the crowd as Tsunami was a color they had never seen before. One, in particular, a blue-haired girl took a special interest. "Okay…what do you do?" Leon asks himself as he watches seaking for anything.

"Seaking, don't be intimidated. Horn attack!" Trike calls.

'Heh, don't be intimidated. That's Tsunami's ability,' Leon thinks as Tsunami slams her tail into the water, creating a violent upheaval underneath seaking as it launched itself out of the water. "Just like we practiced. Now follow up with bite!" Leon calls.

Tsunami roars and launches herself at seaking, biting onto its body and shaking it around.

"Now, slam it into the water!" Leon calls before Tsunami reels her head back before thrusting it forward, slamming seaking onto the water's surface with a bit of speed and power.

"Seaking no!" Trike calls and soon seaking emerged, but unconscious from the move.

"Seaking is unable to battle. The winner is Leon from Aquagrass city," the referee declares, causing Tsunami to celebrate happily.

"Good job Tsunami," Leon calls, making her face him and try to rub against him rocking the boat a bit. "Okay. Easy. You are going to TIP IT OVER!" Leon yells when he falls out of the boat and into the water, making Tsunami dive after him and come back up with him on top. "Really?" Leon scolds, looking down at her.

"Gar!" Tsunami says happily as most of the observers have a light-hearted laugh as Tsunami was vastly different from most Gyarados in disproportion.

"Okay. Back to land," Leon orders and Tsunami swims back and lets him off before returning her. "I have got to teach her about her own strength with humans."

"I'll say," Zoey says walking up with a pokemon egg in a container.

"Wow. Guess you won the contest," Leon observes smiling as he looks closely at the egg.

"Yeah, I had hoped to catch your first match, but it was already over," Zoey says.

"It was just a smack on the head," Leon simplified.

"There you go with your unorthodox style again," Gardenia chimes in.

Leon chuckles nervously. "Yeah…so…um…"

"Was pretty impressive defense even though it drenched me," Gardenia says chuckling.

Leon blushes a bit at that. "Sorry. I just never thought he would go down that easily."

"What are you apologizing for?" Gardenia asks.

"I was kinda hoping for really battling. Not a knockout smash into the water like a bad wrestling drama show," Leon admits.

"That's just how some battles go," Gardenian says.

"Too short. Like cheap drama," Leon jabs again.

"Oh, accept your win," Zoey says nudging him smirking.

"I'm actually jabbing at wrestling. So cheap and mostly a drama show," Leon explains, waving a hand in the air.

"Oh yeah," Zoey says.

"Any case…more battles?" Leon asks, looking to the torment area and sees another battle going on.

"Yes," Gardenia says, showing him the brackets of it.

"Well…while we wait. Who's hungry? I'm buying," Leon asks, turning back to them.

"Let's go," Gardenia says pulling him along.

* * *

"Alright. Final match. Leon from Aquagrass city versus Lana from Hau'oli City," the referee calls as the boats started to come out into the lake.

'Lana…why does she look so familiar…' Leon thinks confused as they stop the boats.

"Alright, begin!" the referee calls.

"Go, Araquanid!" Lana calls, throwing her pokeball.

'Araquanid! That's an alola pokemon!' Leon thinks as he throws out Tsunami. 'And Lana…that's one of the aloha characters…shit. I hate to battle those that were from Ash's group in the show…wait. They are good. Why didn't Ash actually get better with that?' Leon thinks to himself as he drifts off thinking before Tsunami rocks his boat with a splash near him. "Sorry girl. Okay. Let's try a simple bite and go from there."

"Araquanid, dodge!" Lana calls as Leon noticed that araquanid barely managed a dodge there.

Leon hums as he watches the pokemon move around. 'Special ability makes this tough. And that movement…' Leon thinks for a few seconds as araquanid kept moving. 'It's like a tank…Tsunami has mostly physical attack moves as well so I guess this will be a brawl.' "Tsunami, slam your tail into the water!" Leon calls.

"That move again, huh? Araquanid, bite onto gyarados before it can do that!" Lana calls.

"Give it something to chase! Dive!" Leon calls out and Tsunami stops her tail before diving head first into the water. 'It's good at gliding on the water. But under it should be like normal fish.'

'He has to know that araquanid is slow,' Lana thinks, seeing her pokemon chase after Tsunami and neither emerged for several minutes, though the water was disturbed several times.

'I can't let it attack on top. But I have to make it uneven…uneven underwater…' Leon thinks for a bit before grinning visibly as he looks to Lana as she seems to be thinking hard about something before noticing him. Leon puts his hand into the water and makes Tsunami notice him before he spins his hand around, swirling the water around before taking his hand out. "Keep it under!"

Tsunami, seeing this, nods and starts swimming around araquanid as fast as it could, keeping as much distance as possible and soon everyone started to see what was happening from the sidelines as a whirlpool was starting to form and the boats start to be pulled in. "Oh, this may have been a bad idea," Leon says, trying to start up his boat.

"You think!?" Lana spoke up as she tries to start hers.

"Tsunami!" Leon calls, making her look up, seeing Leon's boat being pulled towards the whirlpool she started.

Tsunami looks around and notices araquanid being spun around before suddenly turning and swimming towards it before flicking it hard and sending it flying upward, straight out of the water as the water slowly became calm and she flew out of the water before spinning hard and smacking it back down with her tail. Araquanid crashes into the water and makes it sink for a bit as Tsunami lands into the water as well and keeps an eye on it. "Seems that training did real good," Leon says watching carefully.

Tsunami growls happily up to him but keeps an eye on araquanid as it kept sinking before noticing the swirling eyes and carefully lifts it up by the tail and holds it out of the water.

"Araquanid, poison jab!" Lana calls before Tsunami roars in pain feeling a hit.

"How did it…?!" Leon tries to question before frowning. "Give it a ride," Leon orders and Tsunami immediately latches on with a bite before swimming down the bottom and starts smacking the ground with araquanid along with it, making sure to hit it first as the waves above rustle slightly. "Playing dead, huh? When did you teach it that?"

"A while ago," Lana says as araquanid kept punching Tsunami with a poison jab.

"Maybe I should have made her fling it out of the water and onto land to see that fake knock out. Saves me the trouble," Leon retorts, hearing the loud thudding from Tsunami who is smacking into everything with araquanid getting the biggest hits.

"Alright, last resort. These boat electric proof by any chance?" Leon calls to the ref.

"Um…yes," he says, slightly confused.

"Sorry in advance, but not really Lana," Leon apologizes, partly. "Tsunami, thunder bolt!" Leon calls.

Lana's eyes grew wide before a yellow light and crackling are heard from under the water before it dies down and Leon sits down in his boat while araquanid floats to the top, knocked out for real this time.

"Good job," Leon says as Tsunami bursts out of the lake, roaring in victory. "So yeah…a sneak thief is only good in a game if he is never caught," Leon offers to Lana as he returns Tsunami before driving back to the shore.

"Good job," Gardenia says.

"What…a…pain. First time I ever saw anyone use a fake-out like that," Leon noted as he gets out of the boat.

"Well, get used to it," Zoey says helping him out before Leon is lead away to receive his prize.

"Anyone at the gym ever did that?" Zoey asked curiously.

"No, not allowed in official tournaments or gyms," Gardenia answers as Lana was also lead to getting the runner-up prize.

"You ever did this anywhere else?" Leon asks as he looks at his prize.

"No. It was something I discussed with my pokemon, but how did you know about him? I could tell from how you battle, you knew about her and what some abilities she had," Lana says.

"Like how she is a water and bug type and has the water bubble and water absorb?" Leon asks.

"You even knew that?" Lana asks surprised.

"Yeah, I remember it from studying pokemon. I would love to stay and chat, but I want Tsunami to be looked at by nurse joy in case she is poisoned," Leon says before making his way to the pokemon center.

"So…you look slightly pissed off," Zoey noted, walking with him and Gardenia.

"I'm not. I am thinking though," Leon says trying to remember who Lana was.

"Well, what will you do with your water stone now?" Gardenia asks.

"Keep it for a while. I rather evolve my pokemon the natural way. That way, no immature minds," Leon lectures, mostly to himself.

"You talking to yourself?" Zoey asks smirking as they enter the pokemon center.

"Kinda. I really don't want to use this thing…how much can it go for?" Leon suddenly asks as he walks up to the counter and gives the pokeball.

"About five to six k," Gardenia informs as they take a seat and wait for him to join them.

Leon hums as he looks at the water crystal.

"But remember, hard to find and some charge ridiculous prices for them," Gardenia informs.

"Yeah," Leon mutters before packing it away.

"So I never saw that pokemon. Where is it from?" Zoey asks.

"Oh, that pokemon is from Alola," Leon answers.

"That explains a few things," Gardenia voices as she looks through her pokedex.

"And you said prep school is pointless," Leon says smirking.

Gardenia scoffs at the mention of that place again.

"Though I don't think Alola has a league so most trainers don't go there to compete," Leon says.

Zoey rolls her eyes, still miffed at the mention of the school.

"Anyways, we staying until the end of the festival?" Leon asks.

"Yep. Going to enjoy this event," Zoey says smiling, happy at the change of subject.

"Oh, was that a date proposal?" Gardenia teases.

"Shut up," Zoey shot back, hitting her back.

Gardenia chuckles as Leon blushes.

"Come on you two. Let's enjoy ourselves," Gardenia offers as she pulls Leon up with Zoey.

"By the way, how does Tsunami know thunderbolt?" Zoey asks. Leon chuckles a bit nervously, looking side to side. "What did you do?" Zoey asks sighing.

"I may have spent most of my money for this," Leon offers, bringing out a TM 28.

Zoey sighs. "That explains that part."

"How much you got left?" Gardenia asks, sighing as well now.

Leon slouched. "I got around five thousand left."

"…we will be paying for groceries for a bit," Gardenia says.

"Right…" Leon kept slouching.

"You will also be sharing the TM, right?" Zoey asks.

"Yeah. Of course," Leon assures.

"Good. Glameow will do well to learn that," Zoey says, eyeing the cube.

Leon hums and gives her the cube. "Here."

"Thank you. I will return it after I use it," Zoey says pocketing it as they walk along and Zoey soon bought them all a funnel cake.

Leon hums as he gives a bite. "Never had this before."

"Well, time to enjoy it," Zoey says taking a bite.

Leon hums again as he starts to eat. "So…what now?"

"Well. there are fireworks, then we can call it a night and head out tomorrow," Gardenia says.

"Sounds good to me," Leon agrees.

* * *

"Hey, where are you heading off to?" Lana calls out as she runs up and sees the three leaving.

Leon blinks and looks back to the girl that gave him the runaround. "Um…where are we headed?" he asks himself as he looks up the map.

"Not sure," Lana informs.

"Wasn't asking you…ah. There's the name. But what do you need?" Leon asks, turning to her.

"Was wondering how you got your gyarados to be a royal purple," Lana says before starting a bombardment of questions about raising and caring for Tsunami.

"Quiet!" Leon yells and makes her stop. "Alright…one at a time…and just wondering, right?"

"Half and half," Lana says.

"Alright. Shoot," Leon relents, hoping this will get the troubling part out of the way.

"You mind if I come with you?" Lana asks straight up.

Leon stares at her before sighing. "Um…girls…what do you say?"

"You are from Alola, right? Do you know how things work around here?" Zoey asks.

Lana looks slightly embarrassed. "Not really."

"Leon, we should," Zoey says.

"Oh, my…okay. But last traveler, okay?" Leon says to both of them.

"We'll see," Zoey informs, not wanting to make a commitment to that statement.

Leon sighs. "Okay…so what idea do you have of how this region works?"

"You do some work and get paid for it," Lana says.

"You want to field this or should I?" Leon asks the two female trainers.

"I'll take care of this," Gardenia says reassuringly.

"Thank you," Leon says.

Zoey smiles and looks to Leon as Gardenia leads Lana away to explain things. "Another traveler…you're going to learn to like this."

"Well, I think she is a water pokemon specialist. That may be helpful for us seeing as we got new water pokemon," Leon says as Gardenia and Lana talk.

"See. Good," Zoey pushes smirking.

"Point taken…we staying a bit longer to register in the official league, aren't we?" Leon asks.

Zoey chuckles. "Yep."

"Ok, best find a comfortable seat," Leon says.

Zoey just gives him a few supportive pats on the back.

"Let me know when we are ready to go," Leon says.

* * *

Leon hums as he looks through his pokedex. "Interesting…interesting…ew. No."

"What are you doing?" Zoey asks.

"Looking up recipes for pokemon food," Leon says before showing her the one he was looking at and saw how much ingredients were needed.

"Wow. That would make a five-course meal," Zoey observed as she quickly reads it over.

"Yeah, I find those overblown," Leon says before feeding Breeze a oran berry.

"Free," Breeze says happily taking it and flies around with it.

Leon sweatdrops. "Eat. Not plant…and she's gone. Well, what's the next gym?"

"We are still a ways away from that," Zoey says as they kept waiting for the bus from Floaroma town to Jubilife city.

"But…? Come on. At least tell me the type," Leon pushed, leaning in and smirking at her.

"It's in Oreburgh city and the gym is a rock gym," Gardenia says.

"Thank you, Gardenia. See Zoey? That's a good friend," Leon says teasingly.

"Oh, shut up," Zoey complains as she shoves his shoulder.

"Can you quiet down?" Lana asks, trying to rest with a blindfold.

Leon hums and turns his head to look at her. "When was the last time you slept?"

"Last night," Lana informs, leaning back on the bench.

"Great," Leon says simply and looks back to his pokedex and keeps flipping through recipes.

"Why are you a bit crabby?" Zoey asks.

"Nah. I have a hope of getting training in. And then she stepped in," he explains, throwing a thumb behind him.

"What, Gardenia?" Zoey asks.

"No. Our new sleepyhead…think she will out sleep you?" Leon asks, looking to Zoey.

"What was that?" Zoey asks, making him sweat slightly.

'Me and my big mouth,' Leon scolds himself as Breeze flies back and lands on his shoulder between them.

"You have fun?" Leon asks, petting Breeze.

Breeze thrills and nuzzles his hand.

"Good girl," Leon says before feeling a hand on his to see it was Zoey's.

"Relax. It's two cities away and do you like the idea of reviving ancient pokemon in fossils?" Zoey asks.

"Kinda…" Leon slowly says, noticing she is still holding onto his hand.

"Then the gym might be a side thing for you at the start," Zoey says as Breeze lands atop of both their hands and thrills happily.

Leon chuckles nervously. "Yeah…maybe…maybe…" he quickly stutters, looking away blushing. 'This isn't helping my thoughts Arceus or whoever handles love. Cresselia, is it you?'

"You feel better with something to look forward to?" Zoey asks.

Leon sighs. "Yeah…um…Zoey?" he asks, holding up their hands.

"What?" Zoey asks.

Leon slowly let's go of her and looks away as Gardenia smirks behind them.

"So this bus is going all the way there, right?" Leon asks.

"A stop or two, but yeah," Zoey explains.

"Oh…I will be right back," Leon says getting up and heads for the snack machines.

Zoey smiles as she watches him grab some snacks while Breeze lands on her shoulder and nuzzles her.

"He feels better now girl," Zoey assures.

"Free," Breeze thrills and keeps nuzzling her.

"So soon to hold hands?" Gardenia says smirking.

Zoey sighs. "Quiet."

"Why? You embarrassed?" Gardenia asks.

Zoey sighs and rolls her eyes.

"I'm sorry, what did I miss?" Lana asks, pulling up the blindfold.

"Zoey and Leon dating," Gardenia says teasingly.

"We are not dating," Zoey hissed.

"Oh, so what is it then?" Lana says, blushing a bit.

"Helping friends out," Zoey quickly explained. "I am basically helping mentor him," Zoey informs.

"Right. Mentoring," Gardenia air quotes.

"Like how I will show him how to properly beat someone," Zoey says.

"And find love," Gardenia kept pushing.

"That's it! Come here you!" Zoey calls before starting to chase Gardenia.

"What did I miss?" Leon asks returning.

Lana just points to the two. "Gardenia teasing Zoey."

"Ah, the usual," Leon says handing her a drink as she removes the blindfold.

Lana sighs in relief as she drinks away. "So…going to battle the league but are still new to it?"

"Yes," Leon says simply as Breeze lands on Lana's head.

"Free. Free," Breeze cheers to him.

"So, what are you going to do?" Leon asks.

"I'm here mostly to learn about water pokemon," Lana informs.

"Better to learn from a Pokemon breeder then. They can tell you everything you need to know," Leon suggested.

"I meant in battle, besides, I want to pet Tsunami more," Lana says.

"Oh. Okay then," Leon says simply and drinks from his own can. 'Man, Tsunami must be like an ultra-rare shiny,' Leon thinks as Zoey returns.

Zoey scoffs as she sits down next to him. "Idiot."

"Feel better?" Leon asks, handing her a drink.

Zoey nods as she takes it. "Yep," she mutters, popping it open.


	10. Chapter 10: Cave In

"Zoey, what does being a pokemon master mean? I hear that phrase being thrown around all my life, but still don't know what it means," Leon says.

Zoey drinks from her can as they ride in the bus. "Well…it basically means mastering all the league. Used to be just battles, but then became included contests and then other completions like the leagues over in the oceanic areas," she explains.

"Really, I thought it meant having mastered all pokemon to a degree as a trainer that you can care for any of them," Gardenia says.

"Not by today's trainer's standard," Zoey sighs at.

"Wait. Does that mean that there is no true definition of a pokemon master? It's just an unrealizable dream for people to chase?" Leon asks as none of his group noticed a reporter nearby, taking this down after having gotten interested.

Zoey hums. "Really…it could be considered for two reasons. One is many trainers wanted to be a master at something, possibly that their high strung parents wanted something to brag about, and so they came up with this term, win all leagues and earn the title. Second is just something the leagues came up with just to push so many trainers into their region so they can profit from all of this traveling and all that. So really, it's either human stupidity or just business."

"Wasn't it also be to try and avoid war?" Leon asks.

"How else to not make sure there aren't more than enough trainers to start something? Keep them moving and give them incentives to do so. And you have become a 'master' in…well…anything. Coordinators also count as trainers so you have that as well," Zoey suggested.

"I can see that," Leon says as their destination came into view. "So that is Oreburgh City, huh?" Leon asks.

"Yep. Nice place, right?" Zoey says, smiling at the change of subject.

"What are they doing?" Lana asks looking out.

"Oreburgh City is a mining city I think," Leon says.

"Yep. They have the most famous mine here to find fossilized pokemon. Even their lab where they study it has some kind of machine to make those fossils into real alive breathing pokemon of what they once were," Zoey explains.

"So they pioneered the technology or just the biggest in the region?" Leon asks.

Zoey taps her chin a bit. "Actually, they were among the first to perfect it where Pokemon don't actually die after a while. Unstable genes or something. Think they used a croagunk's genes to make them stable in the end."

"Is that why some say they aren't exactly like they were like back then?" Leon asks.

"There is some debate, but yes," Zoey nods.

"Let's hope nothing goes…"

* * *

"Wrong," Gardenia says as they look at the closed sign on the gym.

"…well shit…maybe the owner is out for a bit? Maybe getting fossils?" Leon suggested.

"Yeah, probably," Zoey says patting his back.

Leon looks around. "Where's the mine?"

"Leon, what are you planning?" Zoey asks.

"Planning to see what they are doing. Plus, what kind of fossil pokemon there is," Leon explains.

"I am for this idea," Lana says thinking of the water fossil pokemon.

"So…mine?" Leon asks, turning to Zoey.

"Let's go," Zoey says, walking off.

Leon smiles as he follows with the others catching up afterward. When they arrived, they saw a few ambulances were there with doctors and nurses looking at both humans and pokemon who seemed to have injuries.

"What happened here?" Leon asks a miner.

"There is an onix that has taken control of a section of the mine and is attacking any who enter the mine," the miner informs.

"What about the gym leader?" Leon asks now with a very serious expression.

"He is in there trying to drive it off," the miner informs as Leon starts heading in.

"Hey!" Zoey calls running in with the others running after them.

"What are you planning?" Gardenia asks.

Leon just gives them a sly chuckle with a sweat drop and they sweat drop in return. "Um…going to help," Leon offers.

"I'll say it. You're a dumbass," Zoey says dryly.

"But one with a good heart," Lana adds.

Leon raises an eyebrow at her. "Hmm…maybe you're not so bad," he starts and Lana looks proud at that. "For one who plays dead in battles." That made her trip in her step.

Leon chuckles as she gives a pouty face before coming to a stop and grabs Zoey's collar who runs past him and pulls her back as a boulder crashes into the wall from an entrance into a large cavern. "Watch yourself," he warns before peeking around the corner to see Roark and his pokemon, a blue pointy-headed dinosaur looking pokemon. Staring down a large onix that seemed to glare while mining equipment and supplies were messed up about the whole cavern. "Okay…he's going to need help," he notes, seeing the pokemon just get blindsided by a tail whip and slide near Roark. "Okay…I can do this…maybe," Leon says, trying to take a deep breath before reaching for his pokeball belt before stopping.

"Can't decide?" Zoey asks, figuring out what to use for her own.

"No…just figuring how to take this belt off," Leon explains as he undoes the belt and takes it off to look over the six pokeballs before activating all of them.

"Wait. You aren't seriously thinking…!" Gardenia tries to ask before Leon moves into the opening and throws the whole belt into the air.

"Let's go, guys!" Leon calls out and grabs the attention of the two sides fighting before all of the pokeballs releases to show all of Leon's team. Amber, Beacon, shellder, Rhythm, machop, and Tsunami who came out, flying straight at onix before spinning around and smacking him away with a strong tail slap before landing where he was. "I didn't think that throw would work."

"Don't pat yourself on the back!" Zoey calls, bringing out her pokemon as well with Lana and Gardenia.

"Kid, get out of…" Roark starts.

"Shellder, water gun!" Leon ignores, letting shellder fire off a stream of water at onix, making it flinch slightly before just growling back at them. "Beacon, he's wet! Do the thing!" Beacon thrills happily before shaking itself as static travels across his fur before a pulse of lightning travels off to onix and hits him dead on, shocking him where all the water collected and even the small gaps in it. "Nice."

The onix roared as it tried to thrash about and cause destruction, only for Tsunami to stop it and make it focus on grappling with her with their tails.

Leon takes a quick look around before grinning and picks up Amber and whispers in her ear, Amber immediately leaning in more before looking to where he mentions and sees the oil barrels. Amber grins and rushes off before kicking the barrels over and spilling the oil along the tracks along the ground, making a circle. Leon smirks before ushering the others into the circle as well and steps over the tracks himself. Tsunami sees the hand wave from Leon and looks back to onix before slamming him down from the tail wrestle and slithering back to the group.

Onix roars at them as it gets back up before a ring of fire forms from the track and surrounds them in a wall of flames. Leon chuckles a little as onix gives a hardened glare to them all, almost like it was using mitigate to make them off their game. "Machop, stay and focus. I'll call you when ready. Rhythm, fly high and stay at the top. Call you when ready. Beacon, keep aggroing it and keep moving. Tsunami…do what you do best and show him how the ladies move," Leon lists off and almost the whole team grins before moving off to their positions.

Beacon immediately runs at onix and dances in front of him before sticking his tongue out teasingly before running away from the tail slam on where he was. Tsunami slithering in and tackles into him before biting onto the tail and holding it up to not make him hit the ground and possibly cause more attacks. However, onix fought back on that and turns to her before binding himself around her and squeezes tightly, making Tsunami growl, but not let go of the tail.

"Amber!" Leon yells and Amber jumps over the flames with a helmet full of oil as it catches fire from the ring before throwing it at onix's head, covering him in the oil and blinding him. Onix then let's go of Tsunami as it tries to shake the oil off before Tsunami keeps smacking him around, making soon hit the ground with Tsunami hitting him repeatedly as she bites harder. "Nice one girl."

Amber gives a thumbs up as she lands near him before Leon takes another look around. Onix then roads loudly and makes them cover up their ears until he starts to curl up then spin around like it was a ball, making Tsunami let go and back off until he rolls into her and starts to grind her body down as he pushes her into the flames.

"Shit…okay. Machop. Wanted to save you for a bit more, but your turn. Seismic toss," Leon orders as he looks back to the meditating pokemon who opens his eyes and grins before running up to onix and slams both of his fists into the rock pokemon, grinding down the stone until he came to a stop and lifted him up in the air to onix's surprise. Machop grunts and throws onix high in the air where Rhythm waited before giving a beaky grin. "Super sonic, yell your lungs out!" Leon cries out and covers Amber's ears while she tries to cover his before hearing such a loud screech that the rocks from the ceiling actually went through the safety net and started to hit the ground all around them.

Onix roars loudly from the pain before coming back down from the full blast of the sonic screech, its own body was still vibrating before machop jumps up and catches a part of him before slamming him down hard into the ground, making a small crevice.

Leon groans and puts Amber down before smirking. "Hit him," he says simply and all of his pokemon immediately tackled onix hard and makes him go deeper into the ground before they hit him again and makes him go deeper. "Ice him," Leon calls out and shellder grunts before ice spears form near him and then fly towards the hole, covering onix in many of them before only the top remained. "A little simmer," Leon jokes smirking and Amber breathes in before spewing out ember, melting down the ice and makes a puddle of water. "And a little electric spice," Leon almost laughs at his DIY cooking as Tsunami and Beacon both charge up as onix finally gets his head out before being shocked again and makes him roar in pain until his head falls down and the attack ends.

The group all leans in as Leon steps up and takes out a spare pokeball. "Let's see if this works," he notes and throws it and hits onix's head, capturing him inside as it shakes twice before it dings and disappears in a flash of light. "Holy crap…now how do you put out an oil fire?" Leon suddenly asks as he looks at the ring of fire around them while most of his pokemon sweat drop at his plan leftovers.

"Geez," Lana says before her pokemon started spraying water.

"I think you handle oil fires not by water, but by sniffing out the oxygen," Leon mutters out loud and the group outside looks to Roark who nods at them.

"It's true. Let's get him out of there first before sealing up the air shafts here," he says as a hole is made and Leon returns most of his pokemon one by one with everyone else before Beacon and Amber both start to glow.

"Cool…they deserve it," Leon says proudly as he holds up their pokeballs, ready to move. He watches as Amber slowly grows in size until her form resembles a small monkey and then the glow dies down to show her with a fire on her tail and a mask like coloring on her face. Beacon meanwhile changes stance and stands on his two hind legs before the glow dies down to see that most of his coat is moved to his head and neck while his colors changed to a more pinkish hue. "Alright you two, we'll celebrate back at the center," Leon quickly tells and returns them before running through the fire and steps up to the surprised group. "So…does this give me a free badge?" he asks cheekily.

"No," Roark says bluntly.

"Worth a shot," Leon shrugs.

"We best inspect the stability of this cavern and the entire mining system," Roark says as they leave.

"Considering that we just used a sonic blast, I would think the ceiling is a bit unstable as well," Leon adds.

"Yeah, so le…Gardenia, what are you doing here?" Roark asks, spotting the grass leader.

Gardenia chuckles nervously. "Funny story, I am actually learning how to battle from him."

"You skipped out on your gym?" Roark asks as they make their way to the entrance.

"No. Just learning again. Leon here beat me in a surprising way just like with that onix," Gardenia explains.

"A bit faster please," Zoey says trying to speed them up.

"We're hurrying," Leon tries to reassure as Zoey pushes him faster till they emerge from the entrance and Gardenia starts getting them to leave while Roark is distracted by the miners coming up to talk to him.

"So…guess no gym battle today. No matter. I at least got an idea of how he battles," Leon says, thinking out loud.

"Yes, now go go go," Gardenia says, pushing them along, not wanting to be questioned by Roark.

* * *

"It's a nice night," Leon says watching it storm outside.

"How? It's storming," Zoey points out as she eats a little with the others.

"I like the rain," Leon explained.

"So why not train in it?" Zoey suggested offhandedly.

"Well, it's late and they all fought in a tough battle," Leon says as Rhythm lays on his lap.

"Thrum…" Rhythm croons and nuzzles his head onto him.

"You rest," Leon says, petting the bird pokemon.

"Thrum," Rhythm coos and closes his eyes.

"So we are going to try and go to the gym tomorrow?" Zoey asks as Gardenia was already trying to sneak away.

"Yeah. Maybe by then, they would be ready for any battles," Leon agrees and eyes Gardenia a little. "Where are you going?" Leon asks.

"Um…you see…" Gardenia tries to start and looks embarrassed.

"You have a tendency to run off on your gym, don't you?" Leon asks.

Gardenia keeps chuckling embarrassed before slowly trying to step out the door. Until Amber shuts the door in her tired state and yawns as she stands in front of it.

"You're not going anywhere so just sit down and let's talk," Leon says.

And talk they did for a few hours where Gardenia reluctantly revealed she was the second worst in the eight major gyms of the Sinnoh region.

"Wait. Who's the first?" Leon asks curiously.

"Fantina, she runs the Hearthome gym and runs off all the time for contest reasons. Whether she is the judge or to watch. She is also one of the judges for the Sinnoh grand festival," Zoey informs.

'Oh, that is right. The gym that wasn't open when Ash first went to challenge it,' Leon thinks.

"So…that's why you have been traveling with us," Leon says, now thinking of what to do while petting Amber's tail as she lays on his lap.

"Well, right now they can't even yell at me for it as I have taken an indefinite leave of absence and they sent a replacement for that gym," Gardenia says.

Leon kept massaging his forehead before shaking his head altogether. "Gardenia…what are we going to do with you?"

"Nothing?" Gardenia asks with a nervous smile.

"Zoey?" Leon asks hopefully.

"I am thinking about it," Zoey says as Leon now had multiple of his pokemon sleeping on him.

"Oh boy," Leon says before sighing and returns all his pokemon to their pokeballs and heads to one of the rooms the pokecenter supplied.

"Continue this in the morning?" Zoey asks.

"Maybe," Leon informs.

"Fine by me," Zoey says, still watching Gardenia who fidgets.

"Night," Leon says before heading into the room to find Lana already asleep in one of the beds.

Leon shakes his head before crawling into his own bed and sighs. "Why do I remember this stuff late?"


	11. Chapter 11: Holes in Plan

"Each side will have the use of three pokemon and only the challenger is allowed to substitute pokemon," the referee calls as Leon and Roark faced each other.

"Obviously can't go all out and come up with the craziest plan ever," Leon says smiling as he takes out a pokeball.

"So this is a pokemon league gym," Lana says in the stands, watching with Zoey and Gardenia who had gotten an earful from Roark not long ago.

"Yeah. Way different, huh?" Zoey asks smiling, enjoying the look of Gardenia.

"We don't have these in Alola. The island kahunas may be comparable, but most just can't beat them," Lana informs.

"There are still some great trainers here who do nothing but battle," Zoey points out.

"The Kahunas are more like each island's leader," Lana says.

"Still, something to consider," Zoey adds as they watch Roark throw out geodude. "Wonder what crazy plan he will come up with?"

"Geodude, huh? Well then, time to battle Ippo," Leon calls before bringing out his machop.

"Okay. Strength against weakness. Maybe powerhouse it," Zoey concludes.

"Ippo, are you ready?" Leon asks.

Ippo grunts and holds up his fists, ready for a fight.

"Begin!" the referee calls.

"Geodude rollout!" Roark calls immediately, not giving Leon a chance to attack.

"Seismic toss the ground and hold it up," Leon calls out quickly and Ippo punches the ground before lifting it as geodude kept rolling and then rolls up the makeshift ramp. "Now toss!" Leon calls and Ippo tosses the piece of ground at geodude and hits it square on.

"Yeah, that is Leon's style alright. Always using the battlefield to his advantage and his unorthodox style," Zoey says as Gardenia smiles as Roark was taken completely off guard.

"Did you think I would keep beating my head against a rock till it broke? I would use other rocks to my advantage," Leon says grinning as Ippo kept throwing rocks as geodude as he came back down.

"Geodude, grab those rocks and correct yourself!" Roark says in a bit of desperation.

"Ippo, run now and do the thing," Leon calls out as Zoey gets why he told Amber back in the cave that line. It was his pokemon's choice. And so Ippo runs at geodude as it grabs some rocks and rights itself before crying out when Ippo actually punches through a rock it grabbed and then grabs its arm before tossing it into the air. "I feel a theme song playing now," Leon says humorously as Ippo jumps after him and then grabs one of its arms before tossing geodude into the ground and makes a hole as he lands next to it. "Nice choice there bud," Leon gives a thumbs up to Ippo who gives one back.

Everyone waits as the smoke cleared and they saw geodude unconscious. "Geodude is unable to battle. The winner is machop," the referee declares as Ippo jumps up and down cheering.

"Nice job bud," Leon congratulates as Ippo runs up and gives a low five to him while Rorack returns his pokemon.

"Go onix," Roark calls, bringing out his second pokemon.

"Ok, Ippo. You sit this one out," Leon says bringing out another pokeball before bringing out shellder.

"Oh, he's bringing out his water pokemon now," Lana says.

"Still playing weakness. But I wonder how he will do this since he barely trained with shellder," Zoey noted.

"Shellder, you remember the plan, right?" Leon asks.

"Shell," shellder grunts and seems to give a glare to onix.

"Alright on…" Roark had barely started when shellder let out a high pitch sound.

Everyone covers their ears as shellder kept screaming before stopping and onix shakes its head, somewhat confused. "Water gun, if you please," Leon requested and shellder lets off a stream of water that hits onix, pushing it back a little with some groans of pain. "Don't let it even have time to breathe. Keep pouring the water on!" Leon calls.

"Oh, he has grasped Roark's style now," Gardenia says, getting what is going on.

"That's our Leon," Zoey says proudly.

"I don't get it," Lana says.

"You see, Roark's batting style can be summed up as the unstoppable spear. Once it gets rolling, it's hard to stop, but Leon took notice of that from this battle and watching him yesterday and isn't letting him get going," Gardenia explained as onix finally faints.

Roark hums as he returns onix. "Onix is unable to battle. Shellder is the winner," the referee calls.

"Come here you pearl," Leon calls and shellder jumps into his arms and gets a hug from him. "Not bad at all."

"Now it's down to Roark's ace. He played right into Leon's hands trying to go for an early assault to make Leon unable to respond," Gardenia says looking to Zoey to see if she had anything to add.

"Not only that but Leon probably figured out the style of Roark might handle things with this pokemon in the cave when we went to help," Zoey adds.

"So unless he mixes up his batting style, then he can't beat Leon?" Lana asks as Roark brings out his Rampardo.

Leon hums as he taps his chin. "Should I…? Or maybe…?" he says to himself as he reaches for a pokeball before taking one and throws it out. "Amber, time to shine."

"Wait, he's not playing the weakness set anymore?" Lana asks surprised.

"Take a look at Roark," Gardenia says as even he looked like he was thrown again.

"Thrown off? That's the game here, huh?" Lana asks, very interested in what Leon has planned.

"You ready Amber?" Leon asks as Amber cracks her knuckles excitedly.

"Mon," Amber grunts and pounds her fists together.

Roark stares at Leon, waiting for him to call out an attack while the two pokemon stare each other down. "Now this is a poker game," Zoey whispers as they all watch for one of them to break. "First move, in this case, is not for winning, but to trap."

Leon grins all the while Roark starts to sweat at the waiting stress this is giving off.

Soon, Leon's eyes darted around the field, almost looking for something and Roark grins at the break he has. "Zen headbutt!" Rampardo roars as its head lights up bright blue before charging.

"Mach punch…and miss," Leon whispers the last part and Amber cries out as her fists glow bright blue before jumping and aiming for rampardos. Roark smirks as he sees what the target is, only for his smirk to vanish when Amber spins to the side and hits the ground, making a large hole before jumping out on the other side as rampardos slides to a stop and his head stops glowing.

Roark frowns now as he wonders what crazy idea he has now. "Flamethrower and then zen headbutt," he calls out and rampardos breathes in hard before firing off a stream of fire at Amber, before quickly stopping and charging after it, it's head glowing brightly again.

"Again and make sure rampardos doesn't hit you!" Leon calls and Amber charges up her fist again before going for a punch and keeps missing, hitting the ground and making some hole after another while rampardos kept trying to charge at her.

'It can't be this bad at accuracy. I saw it fight that onix in the cave and was able to hit it with a helmet,' Roark thinks until he comes to the conclusion that it is still adjusting to its evolution and just maybe learned mach punch.

"Flamethrower and make sure to cover her!" Roark calls out and rampardos stops before breathing in and firing off another stream of fire that covers Amber. "That's it. Now charge," Roark orders and rampardos growls before charging at where Amber was and plows through the blaze of fire to hit nothing and makes it slide to a stop as it looks back to see that Amber is gone. "What? But…no. The field!" Roark realized as there are holes all over the field.

"Use your head for smarts, not hitting the rock itself," Leon recites. "Now Amber, flame wheel!"

"Watch it rampardos. She can come from anywhere," Roark calls out and rampardos starts to look around as they hear rumbling and grunting from the holes.

Soon, the heat starts to rise before a fire starts to come out everywhere and the ground cracks in bright flames before the cracks spread from the holes and reach each other, connecting many of them. "Keep going!" Leon calls out as Roark now knows the true plan. Stop his signature move. "And do it! Mach punch!" Leon orders before they hear a loud cry and then a bang that shook the whole area. The ground then bursts open and Amber came flying out, covered in flames from her flame wheel as the ground finally broken apart and flew into the air with rampardos losing its footing and gets thrown along with it. "Now, make Ippo proud!"

Amber punches some rocks by swinging her hands around and then hits some rocks behind her, swinging forward and right into rampardos before grabbing on its neck and spins around with a flame wheel before throwing it into the ground before the rocks finally came down and lands on top of it, making it buried among the heated rock while Amber lands on top and mach punches the pile hard, breaking it apart and causes the rocks to explode outwards while sending rampardos to the ground more. "Is he out Amber?" Leon asks as Amber lands on a loose boulder.

"Mon," Amber says nodding as Roark was in stunned silence. This challenger just swept his team.

"Hey…sorry about the field. I'm not going to be billed for this, am I?" Leon asks, trying to smile as Amber jumps back to him and onto his shoulders.

"No," Roark says snapping out of it at last. "The league covers this."

"Oh…guess you must have challengers who break the field a lot," Leon tries to chuckle and Amber only knocks on his head once with a fist.

"Mon," Amber huffs.

"You did good girl," Leon informs.

"Mon," Amber says proudly.

"Amber was never bad at accuracy, was she?" Roark asks, walking up to them as he returns rampardos.

"Nah. Just told her to and well…she's use to my crazy plans, right girl?" Leon admits looking at her and Amber gives a happy cry as she hugs his head.

"I will admit, your style is unorthodox. One of the most unorthodox I have ever seen," Roark says before the referee returned with the coal badge, surprising Leon as he never noticed the guy had left.

"Well…I pride myself on it," Leon admits as he takes the coal badge and looks it over. "Looks cool, huh Amber?"

"Mon," Amber cheers as she dances around him now.

"There is one last thing I wish to discuss," Roark says.

"And that is?" Leon asks, looking at him.

"I want to thank you for helping save the mine yesterday," Roark says.

"It was no problem," Leon reassures.

"I still want to give your group a reward," Roark says.

'Well, this never happened in the games or anime,' Leon thought interested.

"Ah…a reward?" Leon asks curiously.

"Yes, could all of you come down here?" Roark requests.

Zoey hums as she gets up and starts to walk down to the field with the others. "Wonder what's the prize?"

"Please accept these fossils as my way of saying thanks," Roark says as four fossils were brought out.

"…you are basically giving us fossils to revive into pokemon?" Leon asks surprised.

Roark chuckles. "Yeah. Of course. So, who wants a first-hand demonstration of our technology?"

"Any chance you will tell us what these fossils are to?" Leon asks trying to remember what the fossils looked like in the game or in the anime.

Roark just gives a smirk. "How about we revive them and find out?"

"You know and want to troll us, huh?" Leon asks sweatdropping.

"Yep," Gardenia says with the same expression and sweat drop.

Leon sighs. "Okay. Let's go see what we have." 'I can't believe I'm talking about a fossil pokemon this way. I'm treating this pokemon like a toy.'

"Fossils are great as you never know what you are going to get with some," Roark says.

"So like a chance cube…I hate to be blown up though as soon as the pokemon is revived," Leon voices worried now at the thought of being incinerated.

"Chance cube? Is that a new pokemon?" Lana asks.

Leon sighs. 'Note to self, keep Minecraft suggestions away from Lana…but maybe tease Zoey on how to punch wood from a tree,' he thinks almost grinning at the thought of Zoey trying to get a tree block.

* * *

"So here we go," Leon says anxiously as the four fossils were being revived.

"So…what do you think yours is going to be?" Zoey asks as the process is taking a while.

"Well, to my knowledge, only eleven pokemon fossils have been found and successfully been revived. So it has to be one of them…let's hope one doesn't come out a giant," Leon says, thinking of something like Godzilla emerging from the machine.

"I would think that is a two out of eleven chances of that happening. So maybe you would get lucky and get a kabuto," Zoey reassures.

"Let's not hope for a giant one as I am imagining a giant hungry pokemon and us being bite-sized to it," Leon says, getting horrified looks now.

"You must be afraid of fossil types then," Gardenia voices after a while.

"Only if they are giant and untamed," Leon says as many started to whisper about this in a corner.

"Hope for the best," Zoey pats his back before quickly hugging him.

"Whoa…was not expecting such contact," Leon says before Zoey realized what she just did.

Zoey quickly lets him go and brushes herself off. "Any case, I doubt that we would have much trouble. I mean, we got a four-person team of pokemon here to take it down if need be."

"…I will be right back," Leon says, getting up and goes to a scientist and talks to them before he is directed to somewhere. When he returned, it was with a cart of different foods.

"Okay…that's one way," Zoey observed as she looks to the cooked meat on the first layer of the cart.

"They are most likely going to be hungry," Leon says.

"I figured that," Gardenia says as Lana looks at all the meat.

"So what are you planning?" Zoey asks before seeing him place a bit of meat and non-meat foods in front of each chamber.

"Entice with the sample then throwing them more of what they want," Leon says.

"Not half bad of an idea…but if they know what we taste like?" Gardenia questions.

"I don't. So I am covering all bases. Yes, that was a baseball reference," Leon says.

"You are full of surprises," Zoey says simply before there were four dings. "Now the real fun begins."

"Yeah…I am handling my own fossil. The other ones are yours," Leon says waiting.

"Already figure that," Zoey says, placing her hand on one of the fruits.

"I hope it's a water type," Lana says waiting patiently.

"I think five of them were water types," Leon says unsure as the doors slowly opened and some heavy steam wafted out onto the ground.

"Well, look at you," Zoey says as a Cranidos starts to look around.

"Cra?" Cranidos says before smelling the meat and goes right for it.

Zoey sighs in relief as she grabs more meat while Lana looks around the tube for her Pokemon before some chittering is heard and looks down to see a scurrying rock and water type eating away at the fruit. "It's…cute?"

"It's a rock and water," Zoey says as the cranidos ate away at the meat like it was starving.

Gardenia hums as she looks at her lileep and sees it moving around before spotting the meat pieces and leans its bud down and sucks the meat into the black area. "Wow. Cool plant type."

"Beacon!" Leon calls as they heard a roar from the pod Leon was in front of.

His pokeball bursts out and Beacon cries, ready to fight as the door opens up and shows the rock and flying type pokemon spreading its wings and roaring defiantly at them.

"Guess the meat didn't work?" Zoey calls as she stands between her carindos and aerodactyl.

"It's an aerodactyl. It's a very aggressive omnivore," Leon calls as the scientist started to evacuate.

"Leon?!" Gardenia calls before seeing Beacon and him blown back from a strong gust by the aerodactyl.

Leon growls as he plants his feet hard and catches Beacon. "Beacon, do not back down and be careful. This one wants to eat and it will try and eat us," Leon says holding on tight.

"Ffy!" Beacon cries, almost angry he got blown away and jumps out of his arms before standing in front of Leon and glares down the ancient pokemon.

"Show him your power Beacon. Show it the power of electricity," Leon says, not backing down like Beacon.

"Flaaf!" Beacon yells out as sparks fly over his coat before it travels over his body. A large bolt of lightning then flew out and went straight for aerodactyl, hitting it straight on and making it come to a dead stop as its body stiffens from the sudden attack.

A few moments passed under the assault before aerodactyl roared in defiance as it was enduring the attack and even advancing.

Leon blinks surprised before frowning heavily. "Okay…"

Then a water gun was shot, hitting aerodactyl from the side, followed by a magic leaf and another thunderbolt. Aerodactyl roars in pain and anger as it tried to throw off the attacks while Leon looks around to see Zoey's glameow using thunderbolt, Gardenia's roserade using magical leaf, and Lana's cloyster using water gun.

"Pour it on Beacon. All our friends are here to help," Leon says.

"Flaaf!" Beacon yells as his thunderbolt increased in output, making aerodactyl roar louder before finally collapsing after enduring this combined assault for over a minute.

Leon sighs in relief before taking out an empty pokeball and throws it at the fossil Pokemon, sucking and catching it into the ball. It starts to shake and beep, before it stops and dings. Leon smiles as he walks over before picking up the pokeball and smiles before collapsing to a sitting position. "Oh, thank goodness that is over…I think my heart stopped beating there for a moment," Leon says, feeling very drained as it was never that scary in the anime or games.

"You okay?" Zoey asks walking over as Leon takes out his pokedex and scans the aerodactyl pokeball.

"…female…no wonder it was cranky," Leon just said and all the girls looked offended. "What? Let me joke. That Pokemon wanted to literally eat me and scared me badly, ok?" Leon says before seeing the other revived pokemon were cowering from the aerodactyl.

"So what are you going to name her?" Zoey asks as she sits down next to him.

"Fury maybe," Leon says before Beacon looks very proud of himself and Leon lets gravity take him to laying down on the floor as police in riot armor started to rush in with pokemon, looking ready to deal with a threat. "Too late. Took care of it…where's the nearest pokemon center?" Leon calls from the ground.


	12. Chapter 12: Highest End

"You feel better?" Zoey asks as Leon laid on the bed, her new pokemon in her arms being fed.

"Hmm…" Leon hums and keeps the covers over himself.

"Still dealing with shellshock?" Zoey asks.

Leon slowly pulls the covers down and lifts his head to look at her with tired eyes. 'When it said realism mode, it meant it,' Leon thought before Zoey touched his forehead.

"Zoey…?" Leon tries to ask, but the recent battle took a lot out of him.

"Yes?" Zoey asks.

Leon keeps looking to her for something before sighing and putting his head down. "Nothing…sorry."

"It's alright. You have your work cut out for you though and Fury is eating everything she can. Meat, fruit, even vegetables," Zoey says, making Leon unsure if the last one was a joke.

Leon sighs. "Sorry…it's been a long day for me."

"Just rest, ok?" Zoey asks.

"Okay…make sure Fury doesn't eat anyone," Leon asks, closing his eyes.

"She is too busy gorging herself on the food being cooked," Zoey informs smirking.

'And most likely the power of Chansey,' Leon thinks chuckling.

"There. That's better," Zoey says smiling at his chuckles.

"I do feel better after a good laugh," Leon says.

"You should laugh more. Maybe it could help," Zoey suggested.

"Well, it does help me," Leon says.

Zoey giggles a bit. "So rest up. I'll go see the others. Make sure you smile, okay?"

"Alright. What do you think Beacon?" Leon asks.

Beacon snores out loud as he lays on his back with his mouth wide open and drooling. "Flaaf…flaaf…"

"Thank you for that riveting commentary Beacon," Leon says jokingly.

"Flaaf…"

Leon snarks happily before covering himself up again. "Ah. Sweet darkness."

"I liked your joke," Zoey informs before leaving.

Leon smiles as he brings up the sheets a bit and watches Zoey leave. 'Nice to have her as a friend. She so should have been the next companion instead of Iris.'

* * *

Leon smiles as he read his travel book in a lighter mood. With Zoey helping tame Fury, it certainly took a weight off of his shoulders. Especially when Beacon offered to zap her to call out when she did wrong. It does bring a smile to his face at times. Though now… "Maybe Hearthome…no wait. Isn't that gym leader always on the move?" he asks, turning to Zoey as Amber sat on his shoulder while reading from the book in his hands.

"Yeah. The worst gym when it comes to having a roaming gym leader," Gardenia says as Leon raised his hand with a hand signal to see if Fury got what he was trying to teach her.

Fury seems to give a look to him as she held her gaze at him before performing a flip and give a tail lash at the end of the move in front of her, but her tail still kept going and smacks her in the face, making her stumble in the air.

"Fury, come on down," Leon calls stopping in his tracks as Beacon sparks up his coat next to him, ready to give a shockingly good time out.

Fury gives a groaning sound and a roll of her eyes before flying down and landing in front of them as Beacon charges up a bit while still holding his snickers back.

"Not this time," Leon says walking up and holds up a sweet berry in front of her. "If you are going to learn these moves, you have to know how to control your strength and speed. Otherwise, it will backfire and you will be knocked out or worse," Leon gently says before holding the berry out of the way of her snapping jaws. "Nu-huh. Get the move first and I'll give it to you."

Fury frowned a bit before sighing and takes off again to try again.

"What are you trying to teach her anyway?" Gardenia asks.

"Maneuvers and ariel ace," Leon informs.

"Oh. How is she doing?" Gardenia asks, watching how Fury is doing.

"Getting there," Leon says, getting out a small army knife and starts to cut the berry as Fury does another flip and then, this time, turn herself and spin around sideways, flicking her tail repeatedly in front of her, but still making the tip of it smack her in the back when she couldn't stop it. "Alright Fury. Come on down," Leon says, still cutting away the berry into pieces.

Fury, hearing that lands in front of him, waiting eagerly.

Leon smiles up at her. "Okay. Not bad," he says holding out a piece and she licks it up and chews it down, enjoying the piece. "You're getting there. Just need to send your tail another way just in case…or use it," he quietly offers as he chuckles a little and gives another piece where she licked it up.

"She's no longer trying to chomp your hand, right?" Lana asks, playing with kabuto.

"Not if I keep giving her food in place of it," Leon sighs and gives another piece before she happily ate it up.

"And when you aren't?" Lana asks, putting kabuto on her head.

Leon looks at her with a slightly tired look. "Trying not to startle her."

Zoey gives a few encouraging pats on the back at that before Leon turns back to Fury as she licks her muzzle. "Okay…now we just work on a few other things to keep your mind sharp. How about this, if you can fly and snatch a piece out of my hand, I'll give you the rest of the berry. But, you must do it without actually hurting me or…well…" Leon trails off as he nods his head at the others staring her down. "So yeah. Get it done and maybe we can work your training more. And you can get more berries," he says, holding up the remaining berry.

Fury licks her lips as she eyes them greedily.

"So? Get flying," Leon says and Fury immediately took off, flying behind the group as they start walking again.

"Not bad. A game as training," Zoey observed, looking back to see Ippo looking around the area before seeing a spot on the ground and stamps on it, cracking the ground a bit from the low-level move. "And simple things we do every day."

"It's how you do a job anyway…for humans," Leon points out as Beacon simply walking with them, but his eyes closed as he seems to be meditating while walking.

"But that still has problems," Gardenia adds, looking over to Rhythm as he hops to branch to branch in the trees as quick as he can and gives five pecks to the trunk everytime he stops.

"Yep. You are bringing up only a few areas, not all at once, but if that was figured out, then we would not be that special," Leon points out before turning to Amber, who has gotten off his shoulder and is now moving from tree to tree by swinging around by her hands and even tail, doing tricks at times.

"That's a deep way of looking at it," Gardenia voices when Fury did a sweep of them and Leon quickly closes his hand when her shadow passed over them and then she herself flew past them, huffing when he did so. "She's trying," Gardenia observed while Tsunami slithers by them, picking up rocks once in a while and crushes it with her jaws.

Leon hums. "You know…if me being a trainer doesn't work out, I could probably publish a book on how to train pokemon on the go," he jokes smiling before closing his hand again when he spots Fury's shadow on the ground by turning his head to it and Fury gets the idea when she notices where he is looking and flies up again.

"What is your main focus in this training anyways?" Lana asks, watching as Zoey was also training her pokemon for future contests.

"How to move without being seen," Leon says, raising an eyebrow before hearing some leaves rustle and looks behind him to see Fury coming at him from the ground and quickly closes his hand and bends down to the ground to miss Fury's claws by a few inches, making Fury snap her jaws annoyed at him when she flew past.

"Nice try. You're getting better," Leon says before flinging one into the air as hard as he could for her to go after it.

Fury immediately flew off and snaps the berry out of the air and chews as she hovers in place.

"Her ability to catch things mid-air is very good," Leon says as he directs her to land as he watches Zoey pull off a combination move with her glameow and shellos.

"All right guys. Take five. You've earned that," Zoey says encouragingly.

"Actually, take the night. We'll camp here," Leon says.

"Yeah, that sounds fine," Zoey says as all the pokemon immediately go off to set up the camping equipment.

"Tonight's going to be a new moon," Leon says taking a seat beside her as Gardenia and Lana join them.

"Yeah. So we have to keep the fire going for a while," Zoey says, digging into her backpack.

"You also know what we have to look out for, don't you?" Leon asks.

"Ghost-type," Gardenia says paling.

"Rattata and Raticate," Lana says.

"Darkrai," Leon says.

"Zubats," Zoey adds.

"Mon," Amber spoke up as she tosses wood to the campfire.

"Ma!" Ippo says as he kept chopping the wood before Amber took it.

"So what can we do to defend against that?" Leon asks thinking before he looks to Fury who was just standing there.

"Maybe do patrol once in a while or just be on watch?" Zoey suggested.

"Fury, come here," Leon calls.

Fury tilts her head before flying down to them and lands near them.

"Tonight, we will have no light so I want you to guard our food against anything looking to steal it. Ok?" Leon asks.

Fury nods heartedly before flying up to a branch and perching on it, looking over the entire campground.

"Wake us all if anything happens," Leon calls tossing her another berry which she just opens her mouth to catch.

"She's catching on," Zoey observed.

"She is far from stupid," Leon says getting up and goes to help with the camp to set up.

"I am surprised she started listening to him so easily," Lana says, now that he was away.

"Leon is like that. He tends to make the impossible, possible. Just a few months ago, he was hugging mareep just to feel a fluffy coat," Zoey giggled.

"Fla," Beacon says.

"Yes. We know Beacon," Zoey says, looking over at him and sees him looking smug.

"Though you are less fluffy now," Gardenia says.

Beacon looks offended at that as he gives a paw wave at her.

"But you are taller," Gardenia adds.

Beacon nods approvingly.

"So what are you going to do?" Zoey asks him.

"Fla," Beacon says striking a pose as if saying 'look good'.

"That reminds me, what are you going to do about Leon?" Gardenia asks knowingly.

"Who are you talking to?" Zoey asks, walking away.

Gardenia giggles. "Okay. I'll go spend time with Leon. He does need someone to talk to at times," Gardenia says walking to where Leon went.

"Oh?" Lana asks smirking.

"Oh Leon?" Gardenia calls.

* * *

"So Zoey, what are you up to?" Leon asks taking a seat as she was fishing.

"Isn't it obvious?" Zoey asks sarcastically.

"What has got you so mad?" Leon asks sitting there.

"Nothing but that fact I haven't caught anything," Zoey mutters, keeping her eye on the bobber.

"Relax," Leon says moving closer to her.

Zoey slowly takes a deep breath before sighing. "Thanks. How's the setup for the camp going?"

"Alright," Leon says as the night started making noises.

Zoey sighs and leaks back a little. "So…what did Gardenia want?"

"To talk for a bit," Leon says as he waited.

"About?" Zoey presses, a little worry in her voice.

"What I think the plan is after Hearthome and your contest," Leon says.

Zoey sighs in some relief at that. "So…training is on hold for the night?"

"Yeah and I didn't want you out here alone tonight," Leon says.

Zoey smiles where he can't see when she heard that. "That's nice of you."

"Isn't that your line?" Leon asks, hearing movement in the water.

Zoey smiles and hooks a fish before pulling it up and puts it into the basket. "Not usually. Only when I actually care."

"I was talking about the fishing line…that was a joke?" Leon asks confused.

Zoey shakes her head amused. "Never mind…"

"Anyways, is that why you were upset?" Leon asks.

Zoey stays silent for a bit before sighing. "No…it's not."

"She gets to you?" Leon asks.

"You too?" Zoey asks simply.

"Well, I think as we travel, we will get used to…hey! Hey! Those are our fish," Leon says seeing an outline in the dark near where Zoey put the fish she had caught.

Zoey looks over and sees a zubat, standing on the edge of the basket as it tried to bite at a fish. "Hey!"

"Here, take a berry. It will be easier for you to eat," Leon says, cutting open a berry for it to smell.

The zubat hisses before launching itself and wraps around the berry to eat happily.

"We best go. Where there is one zubat, dozen's usually followed," Leon says to Zoey, leaving more to distract the zubat.

Zoey nods as she slowly takes the basket and rod away, leaving with Leon as the zubat kept eating.

"You feeling better?" Leon asks.

"Yeah," Zoey whispered, keeping an eye on the zubat as they disappear behind some trees.

"I am surprised you aren't a bit cold," Leon says rubbing his arms a bit.

Zoey smirks. "I like the cold. Grew up in it."

"Well, I am from more of a warm climate," Leon says moving closer to her.

"Guess I can't stay with you if that's the case," Zoey says teasingly.

"Come on, " Leon says before trying to hug her to get warm.

Zoey finally giggles and wraps an arm around him. "Aw. Don't worry. You'll be warm and safe. You have Amber after all," Zoey says, but Leon didn't respond, making Zoey start to smirk after a while. "What? That's not enough for you? Should we help capture another fire type for you?"

"Zoey…I want to journey with you," Leon admits.

Zoey suddenly stops and makes him walk a step before turning him to face her. "There is something else," she states obviously.

"I…would miss you too much," Leon says.

Zoey chuckles a little. "You're sweet Leon."

"I am serious," Leon says.

Zoey just kept smiling at that before hugging him. "Like I said."

"Thanks," Leon says as he shivers a bit.

"Next town or city, we are getting you some clothes," Zoey says.

"Do I stink that bad?" Leon asks innocently.

"No, you need a jacket or something. Also, you should take it easier when you train with Ippo," Zoey says.

"Why? That guy loves to work out," Leon mentions as she lets go of him and they continue walking.

"Well, you have three bruises on you," Zoey points out.

"Training does get you pain in the end for a bit," Leon stated almost as a matter of fact.

"Well, just don't get yourself hurt," Zoey says before the rock she steps on shifts, making her lose her footing and calls out in pain.

Leon immediately holds her up as he looks to the ankle as best he could in the dark of the night while she tries to hold it still with a free hand and lean against him. "Looks a little bad. Come on, I got some first aid in my bag," he offers as he helps her hobble back to camp.

"I can walk," Zoey says trying to tough it out before, the next thing she knew, she was on Leon's back.

"Yeah. That's what I said before I wasted an entire month in some wrappings," Leon mumbles and keeps walking while holding her up on his back.

"Leon," Zoey says blushing a bit.

"Keep that ankle still as much as possible. The quicker we hold it still, the better and faster it will heal," Leon kept advising.

"This is unnecessary," Zoey says, neither noticing something was watching.

"Do you want to be injured for longer than needed?" Leon asks curiously.

"Well…no," Zoey says.

"Then let me handle this. I know some about medical practices. Learned from my parents," Leon says carrying her still and not letting go.

"How much…not at the surgical level, right?" Zoey asks, shivering at the thought of it and Leon can definitely feel it on his back.

"No. Of course not. But I am first aid certified…kinda required that most who work at a clinic or pokemon center know how to. Even the janitors," Leon says chuckling a bit before jumping slightly over a rock and makes Zoey wrap her arms around his neck.

"That would be weird. Having a janitor fixing you up," Zoey says, smiling at the thought of it.

"How about our janitor is a squirtle?" Leon says chuckling at the expression she is making. "Yeah. That's what I get from people I would tell about this. Don't worry. He is very good at what he does…still wants to grow hair on his head," Leon says, confused for a bit.

"Weirder," Zoey sang in his ear and he smiles at that as he keeps walking.

"Okay, so I'm going to splint your ankle, wrap it up tight, give you some pain meds, and that should be it. You just have to not put pressure on your leg for a while. Don't worry, we'll make you a crutch," Leon reassures.

"Already got one," Zoey cheers teasingly.

"I'll become sleepy and I will not follow you into the restroom," Leon shot back and makes Zoey slap his back, playfully annoyed, making him laugh a little before they both heard some rustling. "You hear that?" he asks, the rustling stopping before he finished.

Zoey hums as she looks around. "Not really…come on. This is creeping me out a little."

"Yeah…don't worry. We'll be there soon," Leon assures, returning to walking while the rustling follows them.

Leon hums and quickly stops, turning his head sharply to the bush to the side as it shakes. "Shit…"

Zoey looks the direction he is looking and frowns a little. "Great…"

Leon picks up a foot and steps forward before quickly jumping back as something crashes into the ground where he was and breaks the ground up, leaving a mostly white mongoose and cat looking pokemon with a red streak running across its body standing there with its sharp dark claws stuck in the broken ground as the glow on the claws die down.

"Crap HEY!" Leon complains as he dodges to the side while Zoey hangs on tight, trying to not make her ankle move too much as her legs wrapped around his waist, but still, he hung on to her. "We are passing through. We do not mean to intrude on your territory," Leon tries to play diplomat and he showed a losing hand as the zangoose's claws start to light up again. "I feel the diplomatic process has broken down," Leon points out before the zangoose comes at them, holding its claws up and pointed at them.

Leon frowns before waiting for a bit until he moves to the side and sees the zangoose strike at where he was, making an x-shape attack. 'X-scissor,' Leon lists as he keeps stepping back before hitting a small rock and looks down briefly to take in the shape and size before he looks back up to the zangoose as it turns to them, one of its whole arms glowing now. 'Power arm…punch?' Leon tries to guess as he kicks up the rock and hooks it onto the top of his foot. The zangoose suddenly charges and he flings his leg, the rock flying off and smacking its target in the head. The zangoose tips backward as the glow on its arm dies down and leads it to stumble to a stop and glare at them, a red mark on its white fur. "I think I made it madder," Leon mutters, groaning inwardly.

"Run?" Zoey suggested, both of them watching the zangoose.

"I can't outrun it," Leon says, setting her down.

"What are you doing?" Zoey demands, leaning on a tree as he cracks his knuckles slightly.

"Something so stupid, the police can charge me for it," Leon says, stepping up as the zangoose notices his actions and turns its attention to him.

"You are not…you are. You're going to fight that wild pokemon with your fists," Zoey says in disbelief.

Leon nods as he watches zangoose. "It shouldn't be too hard. It's no seviper after all," Leon says and zangoose seemed more pissed about that comment.

It suddenly charges and Leon kicks up some rocks and dust in its way before hopping to the side, letting it get hit in the eyes until he kicks it away from behind, sending it skidding into the ground. Leon blinks a little. "Too WHOA!" Leon cries when the ground suddenly exploded where he was standing as he moved back, the zangoose there with its claw in the ground. "Shit…okay…" Leon mutters, trying to come up with a plan.

The zangoose rushes him again, its arm glowing bright white and he moves forward and ducks low, surprising the zangoose as Leon picks up the zangoose by the waist before throwing it over his shoulder and into a tree trunk. Leon looks back in time and ducks back to avoid a swipe before pushing himself back and comes to a stop. 'Slash. That was it.'

Leon blinks and feels something fall down his face and hit his shirt, making him look down slightly to see blood and then reaches up to his cheek and feels a cut that made him hiss in pain. "And wider reach than usual. Now I am mad. Come on you wannabe!" Leon calls, half hoping one of his pokemon or someone from his group would hear him and come quickly.

The zangoose hisses widely before charging, both of its claws glowing, and slices where Leon was when he leans hard to the side to make it hit part of a tree trunk and take some bark some, large gashes left behind in it. Leon quickly swipes his leg under the zangoose and grabs a bark piece before hitting and sending one of the fury swipes away into the air and then swinging the bark around to smack it in its face, sending it sliding away a few feet. Leon quickly throws the bark and makes it cut the weak bark. Only for Leon to come right at it with a punch and smacks it in the face.

Leon groans as he reels his hand back before frowning as the zangoose shakes it head annoyed before it gets another hit from the same bruised hand. The zangoose suddenly had its head turned and sent wobbling a bit to the side before Leon closes in and moves under a swipe by swinging his arm under it and sends it flying into the other direction before it feels its arm socket grab by two hands and then swung around. Leon grunts as he lets go of the zangoose and watch it sail into the air and smacks hard into a tree.

"Zoey! You okay?!" Leon calls, keeping an eye on where the zangoose slide to the ground before seeing it slowly get up and glare at him.

"I'm fine," Zoey calls before the zangoose let out a loud cry as one of its arms wasn't moving much.

Leon groans. "Oh man…okay…this is worse," Leon says before two streaks of white were seen and there was now three zangoose there, almost all of them in the same stance.

"Leon!"

Leon sees them all coming at him, their arms or claws glowing brightly before something pass by his vision and then the three zangooses stopped by a field in front of him. Leon pants shakily, letting out a breath he didn't know he took before feeling something brush by his legs and looks down to see a scythe-like blade attached to a white-furred head. "Absol…"

The absol gives a harden leer to the three pokemon, the three angry pokemon taking a step back before stopping and then absol's horn glowing brightly, ready to use psycho cut. One of them gives a huff and runs off with the two following.

Leon sighs in relief as he sees the protect shield move down into nothing and then looks to the absol as it turns to look at him. "Thanks…uh…one sec," Leon says quickly as he takes out his pokedex and scans the absol. "Her…oh…thanks a lot," Leon says smiling at her.

"Ab," Absol says, looking right at him, obviously the night not having any effect on her vision.

Leon hums as he looks around. "Zoey?"

"I'm still here," Zoey says, causing Leon to instantly walk towards her.

Leon reaches out and touches her shoulder. "Alright, get on my back. You may have to feel around," he says, letting her climb onto his back with her good ankle. "So…was I cool before you couldn't see anymore?"

"You were stupid. What were you thinking? Taking on a zangoose like that? Even if it was brave," Zoey says.

"Well…I was thinking of using moves that seemed like good fighting moves and it worked. I was able to fend it off…until two more showed up," he says, slightly disappointed.

"I saw," Zoey says as absol followed them while Leon headed towards their camp.

"How's your ankle?" Leon asks, trying to see it in the dark and notices some dark bruising.

"It hurts a bit, but nothing I can not handle," Zoey says as she laid on his back.

"That's not what I was asking," he says, noting the coloring was bigger than before and then sighs. "Okay…you possibly have a few more days added. Let's get you wrapped up and put to bed."

"Thanks," Zoey says, watching the absol as she followed them till they got to the camp before leaving.

"Thanks again," Leon calls to it before walking over to Zoey's tent and puts her down next to it. "Let me get the supplies," he says, walking off to his bag and digs around in it.

"And your face?" Zoey asks.

"I'll be fine," Leon says. "Where's my kit?"

"Patch yourself up at least," Zoey says as he finds it.

"After you. Your ankle needs to be set as quickly as possible," Leon says, walking back to her before kneeling down and starts to look closely at her ankle before turning to his kit and opens it up. "Okay…let's see."

Zoey laid there Leon worked on her ankle, splinting it while she tried to not let him know when it hurt her.

"Okay…now I should have some meds just in case," Leon says digging back into his kit as almost everyone had gone to sleep.

"Leon…you mind sharing my tent for the night?" Zoey asks.

Leon looks a little surprised at her before blushing a bit. "Should give you the medicine and get you to bed," he quickly says, grabbing a bottle and taking out a pill before grabbing a thermos.

"Please," Zoey requests.

Leon stops before sighing and looking at her. "You sure?"

"Yeah," Zoey says.

Leon stares at her for a good long while before giving her the pill and thermos. "Drink up. I'll be right back," he says before packing up the kit and goes back to his bag.

"Thanks," Zoey says before taking it.

Leon nods as he comes back after throwing his bag into his tent and zipping it up before walking back to her. "Need some help settling in?"

"No, I am fine," Zoey says as Leon quickly got in and zipped himself up as fast as he could, trying to get warm.

Zoey quickly hugs him and he bundles up while hugging her back. "Better?"

"Yes," Leon says as she smiles.

"Good. Now let's get some sleep," Zoey mutters, starting to close her eyes, looking at the new bandage Leon had applied to his face.

"Alright," Leon whispers closing his eyes.


	13. Chapter 13: Mother

"Really? An absol?" Gardenia asks surprised after Leon and Zoey had recounted what had happened last night.

"Yep," Leon says simply, scratching a little at the bandage on his cheek.

"You think it will scar?" Lana asks.

"I highly doubt it. It didn't bleed too much. So it had to be shallow," Leon says as glameow jumped onto Zoey's lap.

"Hey, girl," Zoey says softly, petting her back as she moves under her hand.

"Looks like she is also looking after you," Leon says smirking.

"One of my first pokemon. Of course, she would be," Zoey says proudly.

"How is your ankle?" Lana asks.

"Fine," Zoey informs, lightly touching her ankle.

"So what are we going to do? Make camp here for a few more days?" Lana asks.

"Don't want to risk Zoey's ankle, so yeah," Leon says, sounding worried.

"Maybe you'll get lucky and see that absol again," Zoey points out.

"Doubt it. Besides, need to make sure you don't twist that ankle again and I have to check to see if it is healing," Leon says, keeping watch on her ankle.

"Oh, this is sweet," Gardenia says smirking.

"I'm just making sure she won't damage her ankle anymore," Leon says concerned.

"You care," Gardenia says smirking.

"Concerned. It's just the doctor in me talking," Leon says dismissively.

Gardenia says nothing as she giggles a bit.

Leon rolls his eyes unamused. "So…what's there to eat?"

"Well," Lana says before they look at a plate before stopping as there was a zubat there eating one of the berries.

Leon sighs and hangs his head. "Okay…um…I'll cook. Zoey needs to eat…wait. I think I know you," Leon says looking close at the zubat now.

"Where from?" Zoey asks.

"This is the same zubat I got away from the fish with berries," Leon says.

Zubat cheers happily with its screech before going back to munching on the berries.

"So it followed us back?" Zoey asks.

"Looks like…maybe he followed the smell of berries…who wants to catch him?" Leon asks before zubat flies at him and covers his head. "Never mind," he quickly says and puts down an empty pokeball. "Once you've had your fill, get in," he says, letting zubat fly back to the berries and return to eating them.

"And once again, pokemon are drawn to you," Zoey teases as Fury wakes up.

"No, they aren't," Leon states.

Zoey chuckles as Fury goes to eating the large fruits.

"So what are you up to?" Leon says, walking to Fury whose nose flairs and looks at him, smelling blood.

Fury eyes dart all around him before spotting the bandaged area and growl at it.

"We were attacked on the way back," Leon informs.

Fury keeps growling, wanting a piece of the one who attacked him.

"Don't worry," Leon says, scratching her head and tries calming her down.

Fury huffs and keeps an eye on them, still growling lowly.

"Now then, shall we get back to training?" Leon asks.

Fury nods, still keeping an eye out around them.

"Alright, take to the sky," Leon says after climbing on her back.

Fury takes out, still looking around and keeping an eye out for what could attack Leon.

"They have already run off by a white pokemon. We call it absol," Leon says as they flew around as a familiar group of three spotted them.

Fury roars loudly at them and makes them scurry away.

"Leave them be. We have no time for them. We are now working on training," Leon says.

Fury huffs and keeps flying around now, trying to keep herself steady.

"Fury, show me how fast you are," Leon says, holding on tight.

Fury growls excited before flapping her wings hard and takes off faster, breaking apart a low cloud in half. Fury growls questionably back up to him as he leans low against her back.

"Now this is fun," Leon says smiling, not knowing a group of trainers had found his camp.

* * *

About half an hour later, Leon and Fury returned to the camp to see Ash's group there to Leon's surprise. Though at first, Fury thought it was a new pack coming to challenge.

"Hey now!" Leon complains when Fury charges and Leon immediately leans over around in his position and brings Fury down into the ground, sliding to a stop. "Fury…say hello to our friends…ow," Leon groans, laying against the ground with Fury on top of him.

"And this is Fury, Leon's fossil pokemon," Zoey introduced.

Fury growls disoriented.

"Not our enemies. In fact, these are friends," Leon says, petting her head.

Fury groans and stands up again, letting Leon up as she keeps an eye on Ash's group.

"Whoa. An aerodactyl," Ash says a bit excited as Dawn got the pokedex entry on Fury while Fury stares at Pikachu, never seen anything like it before.

"Pika," Pikachu spoke up, holding up a paw in greeting.

"Aero," Fury greets in return, still giving a questionable look.

"She has never seen the pokemon we have nowadays," Leon says petting her as he takes a seat at the table where a stuffed zubat was laying.

"That explains a bit," Brock says, all of them watching Fury poke Pikachu into the stomach and makes him pat the top of her muzzle.

"So you full?" Leon asks, rubbing the zubat's stomach area.

Zubat cheers happily, but weakly as it tries to lift its head.

"You want to come with me?" Leon asks.

Zubat lifts up a wing and cheers weakly.

"Alright then," Leon says before getting out a pokeball and lightly taps zubat before he is sucked into the pokeball.

"Not bad," Zoey says a bit proudly while scratching a bit around her ankle wrappings.

"So what were you talking about before I got back?" Leon says, knowing team rocket had to be close.

"Informing Dawn the Hearthome contest is a double performance," Zoey says.

"Ah, ok," Leon says as the pokeball disappears. "Oh, we should warn them of those zangooses," Leon says.

"Right. We just faced some zangoose in the forest and they are really mad. So watch yourself," Zoey tells them while Leon digs into his bag and looks to his pokedex for who he has at the moment.

"They weren't mad, they were hungry," Leon says.

"So it only got mad after your comment?" Zoey asks.

"Basically, yes," Leon informs as they start to tell them what happened.

"I can't believe you made it still," Dawn says surprised at this.

"Well, it wasn't easy," Leon says, referring to his bandage.

"But only a small cut? That's actually pretty good," Dawn says, almost proud of his bravery.

"So I am going to head out and train for a bit more. Fury, you stay here and watch over the camp, alright?" Leon asks.

Fury growls and flies up to a branch and perches in it.

"Ippo, Amber, Beacon. Come on you three," Leon calls to the tent.

The three pokemon crawls out of the tent before walking over to him, all of them looking like they want to sleep more.

"Time to train you three," Leon before clapping his hands.

They all immediately perk up as Beacon gives one last yawn before giving him his battle face.

"We will start with a run, so come on," Leon says before starting to jog off into the woods, the three pokemon following close behind.

"And he trains his pokemon hard," Dawn says, all of them watching the four run off.

* * *

"That's right," Leon says as they jogged for going on two hours now to improve their stamina.

The three pokemon follow alongside him. As they trained, Ippo fairing the best out of all four of them before Leon stops as something stepped into the road in front of them.

The absol in front of them noticed their presence and gives a sideways look to them as they all come to a dead stop.

"It's you, huh?" Leon asks.

She kept her eyes on them as neither side moved an inch.

"Absol, I wish to battle you. If we can defeat you, will you join us?" Leon asks.

Absol now turns to them, giving a battle ready stance as her tail whips around behind her.

"Who wants to battle first?" Leon asks.

"Mon!" Amber cheers and jumps in front of them, her tail fire becoming bigger from the excitement.

"Alright then. Amber, mach punch, let's go," Leon calls.

Amber grins as her fist glows brightly before she disappears and then reappears in front of absol, smacking her straight in the cheek before absol slowly turns back against the mach punch and then jumps and kicks Amber away in a flip, sending Amber sliding before Leon again.

"Now disappear into the trees," Leon calls.

Amber jumps off into the tree line, absol herself looking around for Amber, ready to strike at a moment's notice as her tails glow brightly.

Leaves suddenly rustle and absol's ears flicked up before she jumps back, getting away from a mach punch that made a hole in the ground. Absol then lands before jumping off toward Amber and then quickly spins around as she ducks, Amber tries to swing her other hand before feeling a hard hit sent her flying back into a tree while absol's tail's glow starts to die down.

"Okay…Amber?" Leon calls, making Amber groan as she gets up and rubs her head.

"Mon," Amber grunts, standing up again and keeps her attention on absol.

"Okay. Unsteady and then go for it," Leon instructs and Amber follows by using leer.

Absol growls a little as the leer gets to her a little before Amber fires off some ember and the little puffs of fire miss when absol jumps and her horn glows. Amber quickly grows a punch that had a mach punch ready and absol had no time to move in the air before getting a punch to the neck, but Amber's strike made absol's psycho cut strike across Amber.

Leon watches in some pain when both absol and Amber is sent flying away, Amber flying into a bush as she groans in pain while absol is sent flying across the path, skidding to a stop. Amber groans and struggles to get up, landing on the ground in some pain.

"Amber…" Leon starts and makes her turn to him. "…combine two moves. I'm sure you can come up with a good one."

Amber smiles before turning back to absol as she gets back and gets into a stance again. Amber cries out before using the flame wheel and covers herself in a fire while spinning. Leon smiles all the while as Amber took off rolling and aiming at absol. Absol herself smiling a bit now and prepares to use another psycho cut and reels her head back.

Amber fires out as she approaches and quickly comes out of the flame wheel in a shower of flames and makes absol see the lit up fist coming at her. Absol immediately tries to swing her head around and swipes across Amber, but the punch keeps coming and, with absol's attack, spins Amber just enough to swing down onto absol's head. Absol gets a face full of dirt as Amber slides past her, knocked out and groaning in pain.

Absol shakes herself as she stands again, but Leon can see her knees shake slightly. 'She's certainly injured,' he thinks before Ippo steps forward and gets in front of him.

Ippo grunts and gets into a stance. Absol herself bending her front end down before taking off as quickly as she can. Ippo becoming surprised at the speed while absol's claws gain a shadowy aura in the shape of a dark claw. Ippo quickly knocks the attack away with the back of his hand and punches absol in the chest. Absol counters and moves up her other set of claws and strikes down onto Ippo's arm when he blocked it. Ippo kept trying to strike away when the opening happened and gets more than one at times. Absol is then able to deflect off a palm strike to the side and stabs her claws into Ippo who then punches her hard in the head. Leon watching it all with pride on his face as absol is sent away.

Absol shakily stood up again before her mouth opens and dark ball of energy grows in size before it is sent to Ippo before he could react that much. Once the shadow ball hits, Ippo holds it in place, grabbing onto it and then punching it into the ground. Absol gasps in shock as Ippo kicks it back to her, instincts kicking in and her shadow claws activating as she jumps and flips. Her shadow claws pushing onto the shadow ball under it and flipping it around. Once she comes full circle, she sends it right and Ippo gives a karate chop to it, making it explode in his face.

Absol lands and watches the smoke dissipate to show Ippo slightly bruised, still holding his hands up, ready to continue fighting. They both stare at each other, waiting for one to move. Leon then sees a butterfree fly towards them and once the wings flap in their vision, they both took off at each other, the butterfree flying away from the ensuing battle.

Absol swings herself around and strikes hard with a powerful iron tail. Ippo grabs the tail and punches hard into her side before tossing her hard into the ground. Absol immediately swings around and latches onto his arm with bite, her teeth digging into his skin. Ippo takes this chance and keeps punching her side while focusing his energy, the glowing aura around his form growing in size and brightness. Absol then shadow claws him and pushes on his chest, cutting him a bit as she lands in front of him. The horn starting to glow brightly while Ippo groans and struggles to hold up his fists. Absol growls loudly and charges off as she quickly as she can before swinging her head down hard, Ippo blocking the strike with his arm and comes down with an energy-focused karate chop. Absol blinks as she slowly looks at the glowing hand and then falls to the ground, very weak at this moment.

Leon steps up as Ippo falls back, tired and weak. Leon returns Amber and Ippo as Beacon steps up behind him. He then bends down to absol and holds up an empty pokeball in front of her vision. She shakily nods her head and he taps it against her side as she closes her eyes. When she is fully sucked in, the ball shakes once before it stops and dings. Leon smiles and starts to walk back to camp as the butterfree finally flies along the path, seeing as the battle is over and lands on his head before staying there.

* * *

"You aren't cheating on Breeze, are you?" Zoey jokes, seeing the butterfree hasn't left his head yet.

"Nah. Just a passing pokemon. Possibly smelled the food on me," Leon explains and holds up a berry to it, which it took before flying off and nibbling on it.

"It is still funny," Zoey says pushing glameow off her lap. Leon rolls his eyes amused before getting closer to her ankle and looks it over. "Where's Amber and Ippo?" Zoey asks.

"Funny thing, absol appeared and I challenged it to a fight. She accepted and I had both of them fight. Amber did some major damage but Ippo is the one to take her down. I caught her when she accepted that as well," Leon explains as best he could, unwrapping the bandages.

"So that is two more pokemon you have added to your group," Zoey says as they watch the fishing rod for a bite.

Leon hums as he rewraps her bandages around harder, making sure to keep the blood flowing. "Not too tight you can't feel anything?"

"No, I can still feel it," Zoey says as glameow meowed happily from the brushing Zoey is now giving.

"Good," Leon says, sitting down next to her and watches the fish bobble. "So…any good catch? Maybe one that glameow doesn't want?" he jokes a bit, making glameow raise an eyebrow at him.

"I think I got a bite," Zoey says before putting the brush down and grabs the rod.

"Great," Leon says, holding up a hand up, ready to help pull it in.

"Get a net, just in case," Zoey instructs,

Leon nods as he grabs the net nearby as Zoey kept pulling and reeling in the line before it comes close enough. Zoey laughs as she pulls up hard and takes out a finneon that splashes around before it gets off the hook. Leon tries to move the net under it to catch, but misses and a splash are heard. "Aw man."

"Glameow, quickly use thunderbolt!" Zoey calls.

"Glam!" glameow cries out as her whole body starts to spark before a bolt of lightning went away from her and flies into the water, shocking the area. Both humans smiled at the sight as the attack ended before a fish pokemon came up and glared angrily at them.

"Your battle Zoey," Leon says backing off a bit as the butterfree came back and watched with interest as it lands on his head again.

Zoey smiles as she still sat down on the ground. "Alright glameow. Give another thunderbolt," she calls out and glameow meows loudly before firing off a lightning bolt, shocking the water again and makes sparks fly across the pokemon, paralyzing it for a few moments.

"Now is your chance," Leon calls.

Zoey quickly grabs her empty pokeball and throws it, hitting the pokemon spot on. Leon smiles as the pokemon is sucked in and it closes while starting to shake in the water. Leon chuckles proudly as the ball shakes a few times before it stops and dings. Leon pats her shoulder. "Not bad," Leon says before going to get it for her. "This makes your fourth pokemon on hand," Leon says grabbing the ball when a hand reaches up and grabs his wrist from under the water.

"Surprise!" Lana cheers as she bursts out of the water.

"Lana, you scared me for a moment," Leon says as Zoey chuckles.

Lana giggles and sticks her tongue out at him. "So I saw you caught another. That's your what, the third pokemon caught today?"

"This one is Zoey's. I am just getting it for her because she is still confined to the chair," Leon explains.

"Oh. Congratulations Zoey," Lana says proudly before climbing out of the water and feels Leon eye her. "Yes?" she asks, turning and seeing him eye her swimwear.

"Is that what you wear under your clothes?" Leon asks.

Lana nods. "Yep," she says simply and looks proud about it.

Leon says nothing as he knew from Zoey's look, they were going shopping for two in the next city.

"Well, I think that's enough fish for today. Leon, a little help?" Zoey asks, holding her hands out and Leon walks over before pulling her up and leans her against him before carrying her bag of fish and rod as she follows, slowly while hopping.

"You coming Lana?" Leon calls.

"Sure," Lana says stretching before following them.

"So?" Leon whispers to Zoey.

"We will be shopping for two basically," Zoey whispers to him.

"My thought exactly," Leon whispers back.

"Though hers will be more private," Zoey whispers and Leon catches her drift.

"Right," Leon says, wrapping his basket bag around her, keeping her up as they kept walking.


	14. Chapter 14: Dreams Becomes Reality

"Well, that was some hard trek," Leon says as they rest at the pokemon center outside of the tunnel they had just traveled from to get to route two hundred and eight.

"Yeah," Zoey simply says, watching as Leon helps redo her wrappings with proper medical supplies that Nurse Joy gave them.

"How does it feel?" Leon asks, looking it over.

"Throbbing a bit, but fine. Doesn't hurt as much," Zoey tries to describe, watching as Leon sees the swelling has gone down considerably while he gives some squeezes in certain areas. "And at the joint. Like on the ball area."

"Not so much there," Leon says as chansey comes over and hits the ankle with her soft-boiled attack. Leon smiles as the ankle glow yellow while chansey gives a happy chirp and Zoey move her foot around before sighing in relief. "Better?" Leon asks, feeling the area and gives a few test squeezes.

"Much thanks, chansey," Zoey says.

"Chansey!" chansey cheers and walks off while Leon sits by her and keeps looking over her ankle.

"Everything looks fine," Leon says letting her get up and takes a few test steps.

Zoey nods as she slowly puts weight on her ankle and then jumps slowly on it. "Yeah…thanks for the help too," she mentions, looking back at him.

"No problem," Leon says getting up.

Zoey kept smiling as she walks back to the bed and sighs as she lays back down. "Now I can really train for my contest."

* * *

"Alright, everyone. Let's keep training," Leon says early in the morning as Amber and Ippo looked more motivated today than ever.

They all cheer happily while absol gives a motherly smile to all of them.

"Okay then. Going to be teaming you into two pairs. So, Amber and Beacon, you're one," Leon says, making both give a high paw to each other. "Ippo and Rhythm, you're team two. Team one and two will have a mock battle," Leon informs.

Ippo and Rhythm look at each other and smirk while Amber and Beacon give some eager grins back as the two groups look at each other.

Leon chuckles as the two steps onto the provided practice and training field by the pokemon center. "All right. So we are going to try some double moves guys. And this is just practice. So just try to get the moves working and we can work from there. So, Amber, you are going to use flame wheel. Beacon, thunderbolt on her. Try to steer yourself and keep up the charge," Leon instructs and Amber immediately spins into a flame wheel before Beacon charges himself up and then fire off a thunderbolt onto Amber. The flames licking the air and keeping the electricity from going far enough to Amber before she took off, spinning hard down the field. Ippo jumping out of the way while Rhythm takes to the sky. But they watch as Amber kept moving and trying to turn before tripping up over the field boundary logs and comes out of her flame wheel while Beacon ended his charge and looks at her worried.

"Mon!" Amber cheers, holding a thumbs up.

Leon chuckles a little. "Okay…got to work on steering a bit. Though it makes sense. You don't move, you get shocked," he notes to himself as he tries to remember the physics of electricity and fire.

"Ma?" Ippo calls out to him.

"Oh," Leon says a bit embarrassed. "Okay. Rhythm, supersonic the ground once Ippo break it with a karate chop. Then seismic toss them and even punch them. Rhythm, if you can, rock smash and make it easier to throw for Ippo."

Both of them nod before they get into a battle stance before Ippo chops the ground hard, cracking it apart before Rhythm uses super sonic, sending the waves into the rocks and even some to Amber and Beacon across the way. Both of the sparring opponents were dazed a little as Ippo picks up some rocks and tosses them while Rhythm pecks hard with a rock smash and breaks them into smaller pieces. Ippo smiles and then punch the ground hard and makes them all fly up into the air as Leon smirks a little, watching as Ippo quickly punches them and sends the pieces flying past Amber and Beacon who ducked and covered themselves. Rhythm himself even giving a hard peck at the rocks in the air and sends them flying off, both of them clearing the air in front of them before only a pebble fell to the ground.

Leon gives a few claps as Amber and Beacon pick themselves and looks to the rocks around them and even the ones that surround them in a makeshift small wall. "Not bad guys. Nice improv too. If I put you in a double battle, even with a few shaky moments, you can do damage before taking them down completely."

Both Ippo and Rhythm cheer happily to him before Leon blinks and looks to see Fury and absol having a conversation…shoot. "Haven't given you a name yet…keep practicing those moves guys. Give me a moment," he says to them before walking over to absol and Fury and grabs their attention. "Have to give you a name…what's good?"

Absol just smiles and lays her head on her forepaws. "Omen…?" Leon suggested and looks to absol. Absol gives a smirking look before nodding. "Okay, Omen it is. So what are you two talking about? Who's leading the group at times?"

Both of them look to each other and give a sly smirk before they look back to him and nodded.

Leon smiles. "Well…you two are quite protective. I guess once in a while, either one of you could either be in the lab or with my team. Maybe make things easy. Heck, you can help train. I'm sure you motherly duo would like that."

Both of them smile before Fury raises a wing and wraps it around him to pull him into a hug as Omen snickers.

"Okay. I'm your son too," Leon jokes along smiling.

"Is that an aerodactyl and an absol?" an excited voice calls.

Leon blinks and looks over near the entrance to the center and sees a little kid, a young, possibly six-year-old girl, standing there, looking very starstruck. "Yeah…yes, they are," Leon says as Omen smiles as she gets up and walks over to the girl and sniffs her before smiling brightly and nuzzles the girl, making her giggle and hug Omen around the neck. "Guess you like the rare pokemon, huh?"

"Yes, I do," the girl says, very starry-eyed.

Leon gives a happy chuckle while Fury walks over and pats the little girl's head who giggles and hugs the large aerodactyl, who was a bit surprised at the motion. "You're supposed to hug back," he whispers to her and Fury slowly wraps her wings around the little one while Omen gave some snickers behind a paw. She is acting like a female in the forest who doesn't know how to actually treat children, but they do try awkwardly.

"Are you going to compete in the local tournament?" the little girl asks.

"Tournament?" Leon asks interestedly.

"Yeah. It's a double battle tournament being held at a local dojo," the girl informs.

Leon blinks before humming happily. "A double battle. Strangely great timing," he notes, looking back to the four still training.

"Yeah. Though the dojo always wins it," the girl says.

Leon hums a few more. "Always, huh? Okay. Yeah, I'm going to compete. Where is it?"

"Over that way," the girl points.

"Thanks," he says looking toward the direction she is pointing. "A double battle and someone always wins," Leon says before heading in to find his companions and tell them what he was doing.

* * *

"You want to seriously take them on?" Zoey asks as they all made their way to the dojo area.

Leon smirks all the while. "Yep. Figure I might as well test put mine and my pokemons' skills here. I hope the master forgives me if I 'accidentally' destroy the field."

"You are the only one who gets hung up over such things," Gardenia says.

"I simply don't want to be billed and lose all my money just because I have a different way of battling," he informs, looming over the approaching dojo in a particular style. 'Wow…Japanese much? Then again this is a Japan made game.'

"Greetings. Are you here for the tournament?" someone asks at the front gate as they greet them.

Looking to the source, they see an older man with a black long beard that only was just showing signs of graying. "Ah, yes. Would I be correct to assume you are the master of this dojo?" Leon asks.

"No. I am an assistant, but my father is the master of this dojo," the man says chuckling.

"Oh. So do I need to do something? Sign up, fill out papers?" Leon asks curiously.

"You wish to compete?" the man asks.

"Yep," Leon says proudly.

"This is rare. For the most part, most trainers not of the dojo, don't sign up," the man says before leading him in.

"Reason?" Leon presses.

"They usually have no interest or don't even. Just bypass it, but…no. I shouldn't involve you in internal matters. This way please," the man says, leading them inside to see many different pokemon and humans training.

"Nice place," Leon complements.

"Thank you," the man says as the group notices some hostile stares at them as they passed before entering inside and the man starts to sign up Leon.

"Where's the master at the moment?" Leon asks, looking around.

"He is seeing to the field at the moment. You also cut it close. The tournament begins in just ten minutes," the man informs finishing.

"Oh, that's cool. What are the rules?" Leon asks, quite curious.

"The battle will be double battles with no substitutions. Other than that, standard league rules," the man informs, making Leon nod. "Will any of you be competing as well?" he asks.

"No. We are just going to watch the battle sir," Gardenia promised.

"Same," Lana and Zoey said at the same time.

"Don't worry. We won't disrespect the dojo," Leon promises and makes Zoey eyed him a bit at the formality.

"Alright. Then this way," the man says before leading them to the battlefield.

As they were lead to a sitting area, a gong was struck by an old man with grey hair and beard wearing a kimono. The gong signaled to the entire school it was time for the competition.

"Father," the man said walking up to the man to talk alone with him as they waited.

"I notice some new faces. I recognize two, but not the others. Tell me, are any of them here to compete?" the master asks.

"Yes. One and that is the boy looking quite eager for the battle," the man says, pointing to Leon.

"Ah, good. Let's hope he does well," the master says as the man adds a piece of paper to the box.

"First battle will be between…" the master calls out, digging into the box before taking out two pieces of paper.

Leon smiles all the while as two unrelated names to him were called and two trainers approached the ends of the fields. "You're excited," Zoey observed next to him.

"Yeah, I am," Leon says smirking.

"Got new ideas besides the ones at the center?" Zoey asks curiously.

"Now Zoey, that would ruin the surprise and make things too easy for them," Leon says teasingly, nodding his head to the others sitting by.

They all watch as the battle happens before the winner emerged from it before the next battle is called. "Leon versus Elbert," the master calls, having drawn the names.

"Good luck," Zoey says encouragingly as Leon steps down to the field while Elbert steps from the other side. "Now, what crazy plan you have today?"

"Alright, Rhythm and Omen, time to battle!" Leon calls before throwing his pokeballs and releases his absol and trumbeak.

"Noctowl, Shellos, go!" Elbert calls, throwing his pokeballs.

Leon hums as he looks over the flying and water type. "Okay. So this might be something."

"Well, isn't that an interesting choice," the master says as he sits with his son to watch the battle.

Leon taps his chin, Zoey recognizing that expression as the one before coming up with such a plan, it would destroy a field…again. "Well? I'll let you have the first attack."

Elbert smirked. "Foresight noctowl. Shellos, water pulse."

"Guys," Leon simply said and they both jumped away from the water pulse and Leon eyes the noctowl whose eyes were glowing. "Good. Now Omen, give me a psycho cut. Rhythm, give me a supersonic."

Rhythm lets out a screech toward the two, making them try to cover themselves and stop the screech from bothering them. However, they did not notice that Omen ran inside the supersonic screech with her horn glowing brightly. She then swings her head around and spins along the ground, swiping across the two of them before kicking them away with her hind legs and smirks as Rhythm stops his screeching. "Keep it up. Rhythm, pluck. Omen, slash."

"This is weird," Zoey notes as the two pokemon charged at the disorientated opponents.

"What?" Gardenia asks as Zoey watched intently.

"He never calls out this many attacks. He usually lets them battle on their own by giving them a guide to follow. Why is he changing his style now?" Zoey tries to figure out as Lana looks to them confused at this as isn't this what trainers would usually do?

Gardenia blinks before thinking about their gym battle. "Now that I am thinking about it…yes. This is weird," she says as the four collide and noctowl and shellos goes flying away, looking very weak with the number of battle marks on them.

"Isn't Omen a new pokemon for him?" Lana asks as Omen hits them with one last psycho cut, knocking both pokemon out.

"Yes…but he tends to find a way to make it work even when new pokemon on his team," Zoey says as both returns trainers return their pokemon and walk off, a little smile on Leon's face.

"Winner is Leon," the referee announces.

* * *

Leon and his team battled hard, impressing the master of the dojo as he defeated four of his students already. Now, he faced the one who is currently this tournament champion, Lincon. Leon smirks at this match. He knew he had humbled many of the students here now as they had looked down on him for being an outsider. Now here he was, facing the final opponent.

"This is so strange. Every single move called out. Every dodge. What's he planning? What's wrong here?" Zoey says, partially confused.

"Alright, you two. Time for the finals," Leon says before throwing out Fury and Ippo.

"Maybe something else is going on," Gardenia suggested.

"Go linoone and nosepass," Lincon calls, throwing his own pokeballs out and shows the two who keep their eyes on their opponents.

"What do you think son?" the master asks, watching intently as they had seen all six of Leon's pokemon battles today.

"He's strong. And smart," the son says, interested.

"I can already tell he has gotten a firm grasp on our school's style from watching and battling our students. He may have already started to come up with a strategy to counter the style," the master says.

Leon keeps smiling all the while, catching some hints of the conversation going on as his opponent seems very secure in his win by that smirk on his face. "Your move," Leon says as he thought, 'Nosepass is pure rock and it mostly excels only in defense. He must be a defender for this battle. Linoone on the other hand, if I recall, is an all arounder, but it's the best attribute is speed.'

"Alright linoone, fury swipes. Nosepass, give them a thunder wave," Lincon orders.

Leon smiles a bit more "Already utilizing the speed. Ippo, Fury, ground now!"

"There's the Leon we know," Zoey cheers as Fury spikes the ground with her tail and hangs low while Ippo punches the ground and also gets as low as possible before the thunder wave hits them and passes through them. Linoone running up with glowing claws before swiping quickly at Fury. Fury herself grunting from the attack before flicking her head up and knocking linoone away.

"Now, let's make things harder and easier. Fury, give them a scare. Ippo, go for the leg moves," Leon calls out and Fury immediately gives a scary looking expression to the two and they flinch a little while shivering fright. However, that soon passed when Ippo came charging in and sweeps his feet under linoone and sends it off the ground. Only another kick makes it fly off as Fury rushes up and grabs nosepass with her claws and lifts it up before spinning and slamming it into the ground.

Lincon became surprised before seeing linoone fly by when Ippo gave a hard punch and sends it across the field. Linoone huffs as it gets up again, ready for another round. "Headbutt! Nosepass, get up and use rock throw!"

Leon chuckles a little. "Guys, you know yourself how to handle that."

Lincon became slightly confused before nosepass punches the ground and picks up a rock before throwing it as linoone charges with a spread of energy across its head at Ippo. Only for Ippo to duck and put a hand under linoone, sending it flying as he throws linoone pass him and straight to the rock, breaking it apart before sliding to a stop near nosepass. "Great. Linoone, dig. Nosepass, rock slide."

Leon hums a little as rocks came up from the field before crashing near Fury and Ippo, covering the area in a small dirt cloud before linoone comes up under Ippo and pushes him up, giving a few hard scratches before jumping off of him and landing near nosepass. "Fury, give some bites. Ippo, switch with Fury. You know how to too."

Ippo gives a running slap on her wing as Fury flies past him at linoone, her fangs sparking heavily with a yellow color. Ippo crying out as his fist glows with streaks of energy and punches nosepass before giving a hard kick and keeps punching. Linoone staring up at Fury's menacing demeanor before a cry of "Dodge it!" hits its ears and it jumps and rolls out of the way. "Now use fury swipes. Nosepass, hold out and use thunder wave!" Lincon calls.

Linoone's claws glow brightly and extend before jumping at Fury and starts swiping at her back as it lands there while nosepass legs out a spark and then sends a thunder up into the sky and down onto Ippo who quickly punches the ground and grabs nosepass's leg, the thunder wave hitting him and travels into nosepass a little before heading into the ground.

"Guys, flick and punch!" Leon calls out, making everyone, even the master, confused at this move. However, his group knew what he was trying to do. His classic 'break the field' move as it is classic to him now.

Fury and Ippo look to each before Fury rolls over and lands onto her back, smashing linoone against the ground and making it get up weakly a little while Fury rolls back and flies at Ippo. Ippo himself grabbing hold of nosepass's leg and swing it around before flinging it at linoone and makes them both crash into each other.

"Dig and power gem!" Lincon calls out as Fury flies by Ippo and makes him grab onto her tail before flying upward.

Leon chuckles happily at the fact they got the idea before linoone digs itself into the ground and nosepass charges energy into five sparkling areas around it, aiming up at the flying duo. All at the point where Fury reaches the ceiling and spins in the air with Ippo still hanging on tightly. Spinning faster and faster before stopping and coming out of her spin while her tail kept going and gives a hard flick, sending Ippo down hard with a rush of the wing while he charges up a mach punch. Nosepass fires off its power gems and misses Ippo once he is already past the streaks of energy before punching the ground hard and makes linoone coming at him from the ground pop up in from of him. The field breaks apart into pieces and rocks fly up a little. Ippo quickly punches away linoone before picking up rocks and tossing them at the duo.

"Fury, keep them…" Leon starts before seeing Ippo pick up something furred and holds up, prepared to throw before realizing he picked up something alive and not rock. Everyone looking in some confusion as they see Ippo holding up linoone before they turn their head to see that another linoone is already with nosepass. "Hmm…so that's how he cheated. Multiple linoone…in the ground," Leon spoke up and Fury immediately flies down and crashes into the ground, sending up more rocks and revealing some tunnels as she swipes away the rocks with her wing and another linoone under her, looking pretty scared out of its mind. "Um…officials?" Leon calls, smirking inwardly as this can play out quite well for him.

"Lincon is disqualified," the master says looking very unhappily at Lincon.

Leon sighs. "Come on back guys. It's over," he waves over and Ippo jumps over the rocks while Fury flies and glides back to him and lands nearby him.

* * *

"I think we did well," Leon says as they traveled once more.

"And got your prize," Zoey says, looking to his TMs. "What are they anyway?"

"I didn't even know there was a prize like this," Leon says smirking.

"Well, now you do," Zoey says taking one and looks it over. "Wonder what these give?"

"I looked them up at the pokemon center. Trick room, focus punch, and iron tail," Leon says presenting each one when he told what they could do.

"Not bad. Trick room is actually rare to have," Zoey remarks smiling.

"And it is very useful. Especially with a slow pokemon," Leon says smirking.

"Who are you going to give it to?" Gardenia asks curiously.

"Need to think on that," Leon says as Amber happily swings in the trees.

"Well…you have a lot of time to study on that. Because it's my turn to win a few things. Like my contest coming up," Zoey states smiling.

"I have faith you will do great," Leon encourages.

Zoey chuckles and gives a playful shove to which he gives one back before they get into a shoving match and start to run ahead.

"They are having fun," Lana says, now wearing a new outfit thanks to Gardenia and Zoey's insisting.

Gardenia nods looking at him in her black jeans and Kyogre themed hoodie. "Yeah. It's not all training and traveling."

"I still don't see why I needed new clothes," Lana says.

"We are moving from climate to climate. You need different clothes for what's going on here," Gardenia explains.

"But still…" Lana nearly whines.

"No buts. You want to freeze when we get up north?" Gardenia scolds.

"Ah!" Lana calls.

Gardenia giggles and laughs as Amber rolls her eyes amused before trying to swing and catch up to her trainer and his possible future mate.


End file.
